Subscribers

U-verse TV aims for 1 million subs this year

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:54:33 -0400

If AT&T has anything to do with it, Verizon Communications soon will not be the only U.S. telco TV player with more than 1 million customers. AT&T said in its second quarter earnings report yeseterday that it added 170,000 U-verse TV subscribers during the quarter, and that it still expects to surpass 1 million customers for the IPTV offering by the end of this year. The telco giant ended the second quarter with about 549,000 subscribers.

The company's U-verse service is available to 11 million households in about 53 markets. AT&T officials said the TV service has achieved 10 percent penetration in a handful of markets, and they also made the case that access line loss is not as severe in those markets as it is in other. Still, AT&T's landlines are down about 8 percent since the second quarter of 2007.

For more:
- see this coverage at Multichannel News

Related articles:
AT&T added 148,000 U-verse customers during the second quarter. AT&T report
AT&T U-verse landed in the Chicago area earlier this year. AT&T report

Cablevision adds video subs, strikes Newsday deal

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:40 -0400

While some cable TV companies are taking an obvious hit from telco IPTV competition (see Comcast), others may not be seeing much of an impact. Cablevision Systems last week said it added 41,000 digital-video subscribers and 2,000 basic-video customers to its current 3.1 million video subscribers during the first quarter of this year, adding that it has seen little impact from Verizon Communications' FiOS service. The company also has moved aggressively into Verizon's traditional segments with its Optimum Lightpath data and voice services. In addition, the company said it will spend more than $300 million on rolling out Wi-Fi technology in the New York metro area and on Long Island over the next two years.

This week, Cablevision made another intriguing, though somewhat puzzling move, saying it will pay $650 million to acquire most of suburban newspaper Newsday. Arguably, Newsday could help Cablevision competitively by giving it more promotional heft for its offerings against whatever marketing blitz competitor Verizon may muster. It could also create cross-selling opportunities for advertisers that might be thinking of moving more money over to IPTV platforms. Still, newspapers as medium are weakening by the hour, so the benefits could be short-term at best.

For more:
- See this story about earnings and another about the Newsday deal at The Wall Street Journal
- and Cablevision's quarterly results

Related articles:
- Cablevision's Newsday deal seems unlikely to start a trend. Cablevision report
- Cablevision to rollout WiFi network. Cablevision WiFi report

Dish Network can't match DirecTV growth

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:20 -0400

It is still too early to tell how AT&T's new commitment to re-sell Dish Network satellite TV services across all of its markets will affect Dish's business, but as the sales effort gears up, it will come none too soon. Dish Network reported as part of its first quarter financial results this week that it added only 35,000 new subscribers during the quarter, almost 89 percent less than the 310,000 it added for the same quarter last year. The figure also is far less than DirecTV's Q1 subscriber additions of about 275,000, posted last week.

AT&T had been re-selling both Dish Network and DirecTV service, the latter in the former BellSouth region, but recently committed to go forward with Dish alone. Did it bet on the wrong horse, and by the way, how much is AT&T's own IPTV success affecting its satellite TV partner?

For more:
- read this Associated Press story at Yahoo! Finance

Related articles:
- Could AT&T acquire EchoStar? AT&T report
- EchoStar wins slice of spectrum in FCC auction. EchoStar report

SureWest climbs Everest to new IPTV heights

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:10 -0400

SureWest Communications posted 180 percent growth in IPTV subscribers during the first quarter, but before you start copying their marketing materials, consider that most of that growth--about 172 percent of it--came from the Roseville, Calif. telco's acquisition of Kansas City-based Everest Broadband. SureWest now has 55,200 IPTV customers across the board. The company recently launched an HD DVR service that could further help grow and monetize its IPTV offering.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
- Surewest otherwise increase revenue, but barely show profit. SureWest report
- SureWest recently launched VoIP and HD DVR services. SureWest report

Comcast takes video hit, but adds telephony subs

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:59:40 -0400

Is video becoming a point of market weakness for cable TV companies? That could be the case if we decide to invest in the trend suggested by Comcast's first quarter 2008 earnings report last week. The company said that it lost 57,000 basic video subscribers during the quarter, and even though it added about 494,000 digital video customers, the latter number was observed to be less than some analyst estimates, according to The Wall Street Journal. Comcast also saw its first-quarter profit dip about 12.5 percent compared to the same period last year. Still, it remains to be seen if video softness is an industry-wide trend. Time Warner Cable had said previously that it added both basic video and digital video customers during the quarter, and at least met estimates in both areas.

Meanwhile, Comcast added 639,000 digital telephony subscribers during the first quarter and almost half a million broadband Internet customers. Comcast now has about 5.1 million voice customers, and seems to be one of the chief beneficiaries of telco landline loss, but its ability to steal voice customers from telcos is not impressive enough to cover the higher-value video customers it is losing to the telcos.

For more:
- see this report at The Wall Street Journal
- read this blog post at ZDNet.com
- check out this follow-up at GigaOM

Related articles:
Comcast reported a profit jump in Q4 2007 Comcast report
Is Comcast planning a wireless network? Comcast report

KPN adds 56,000 IPTV customers in Q1

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:59:20 -0400

Dutch telco KPN Telecom reported that it signed up 56,000 new IPTV customers during its first quarter, a boost that now gives the company about 553,000 IPTV subscribers. The main IPTV competition in the Netherlands for KPN is Tele2. The additional IPTV helped fuel a 22% rise in KPN's overall revenue for the quarter. The company has been rumored in the past to be a potential acquisition target for firms such as AT&T and Spain's Telefonica, but KPN official said the telco currently is not engaged in any takeover talks.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
- KPN launched its IPTV service two years ago this month. KPN report
- Nortel lends help to telecoms looking at IPTV Nortel report

Verizon posts 263K TV customer boost

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:50 -0400

Verizon Communications this week reported a 9.8% increase in profit for the first quarter of 2008. Verizon said net income totaled $1.64 billion, with revenue rising about 5.5%. Much of the growth came from Verizon Wireless, but Verizon FiOS TV service continue to be secondary source of strength. The telco reported that FiOS TV subscribers increased by 263,000 FiOS TV customers during the quarter, giving a total of about 1.2 million TV customers.

AT&T last week reported it had gained about 148,000 U-verse TV customers, so the two largest telcos won over more than 400,000 TV customers in the first three months of this year. That can't be good news for a cable TV industry that has been knocked around competitively by AT&T and Verizon since last year.

For more:
- see this story at The Wall Street Journal
- and this blog post at ZDNet.com

Related articles:
AT&T last week reported 148,000 new IPTV customers. AT&T report
Verizon hits 1 million FiOS subscriber mark Verizon report

AT&T adds 148,000 U-verse TV customers

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:59:50 -0400

AT&T said in its first-quarter earnings report today that it gained about 148,000 U-verse TV subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total IPTV service tally to about 379,000. Though Verizon Communications continues to set the high mark for U.S. telcos, with more than 1 million FiOS TV customers, AT&T is posting strong growth quarter by quarter as it puts some early growing pains in the past. The telco said it is on track to obtain 1 million U-verse TV customers by the end of this year. If you add satellite TV customers into the mix, AT&T now serves about 2.6 million TV customers total.

Yet, success in this new business arena and in wireless are not allowing AT&T to skate through the otherwise unstable landline telecom sector. The company last week said it would lay off more than 4,600 employees, though it still intends to keep hiring for jobs specific to growth areas such as TV and wireless. Many industry watchers are predicting other telcos will make similar cuts this year as they try to focus on what will be the core telco businesses of the future.

For more:
- see this AT&T press release

Related articles:
- AT&T recently rolled out U-verse TV in Chicago. AT&T report
- Verizon recently reported that FiOS TV had reached 1 million homes. Verizon report

Mobile TV still not fulfilling its potential

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:59:20 -0400

Mobile TV continues to be a source of excitement for the mobile industry, but the recent Mobile TV World Summit in London was a venue at which some firms involved in the mobile TV ecosystem vented their concerns about the success of the service thus far, according to Digital Broadcast.

This is not an IPTV issue, strictly speaking, but since mobile TV is one aspect of any major telco's push into the TV realm, it may offer some valuable lessons. One of those lessons, according to some of the London event, is that service providers need to simplify packaging and pricing of mobile TV. At least one speaker urged service providers to include mobile TV in flat-rate service plans, rather than charging an additional fee of up to $15 for the service (If you are a Verizon Wireless customer, you recognize that price tag).

For more:
- read this Digital Broadcast story at itp.net

Related article:
- Mobile TV progress was seen in Brazil late last year. Mobile TV report
- Spending on mobile TV to rocket Mobile TV spending report

Global study sees 14 million IPTV homes

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:59:40 -0400

Still looking for evidence that IPTV is for real? The number of households using telco IPTV services jumped from 4.7 million in 2006 to 14 million this year, according to a new report from Parks Associates. Of course, getting them to sign up is just half the battle. You know the other half.

For more:
- read this story at WorldScreen.com