While Verizon Communications saw its lowest quarterly subscriber additions in years for FiOS TV during the fourth quarter 2009, AT&T fared much better, seeing its IPTV new customer additions for Q4 that were higher than in the third quarter and at the same level with its sign-ups for the second quarter last year. AT&T added 248,000 U-verse TV subscribers in Q4, up slightly from the 240,000 signed up in Q3. Verizon earlier this week said it added only 153,000 FiOS TV customer in Q4, well below analyst expectations.
AT&T had 2.1 million U-verse TV customer at the end of 2009. Verizon had about 2.9 million FiOS TV customers. AT&T actually added more customers--1 million or so--to its telco TV service during last year than Verizon did. More importantly to AT&T, the telco said its revenue from U-verse TV, broadband and voice tripled during 2009, and is re-defining the telco's customer revenue profile.
The negative TV-related news from AT&T coming out of 2009: The telco showed a net decline in satellite TV customers of 21,000 during Q4. This showing follows a statement last year from AT&T-satellite partner DirecTV that its customer additions coming from telco resale deals were leveling off.
For more:
- Multichannel News has this story [1]
Related articles
AT&T added 240,000 U-verse TV customers in Q3 2009 [2]
AT&T surpassed the 2 million IPTV subscriber in Q4 [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.multichannel.com/article/446516-AT_T_U_verse_Revenue_Nears_3_Billion_Annually.php
[2] http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/ts-iptv-take-240-000-subs/2009-10-23
[3] http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/t-reaches-2-million-iptv-mark/2009-12-09