Comcast CEO Downplays Previous Warning of TV User Losses

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts this week attempted to walk back earlier warnings by the cable giant that it would be losing a significant number of TV customers during the third quarter. Comcast executive Matt Strauss recently proclaimed that Comcast expects to lose anywhere between 100,000 and 150,000 cable subscribers during the third quarter. The reason? The impact of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, as well as the steady drip of defections due to cord cutting, the rate of which last quarter set records as nearly 1 million pay TV subscribers moved to streaming alternatives.

Clearly hoping to calm nervous investors, Roberts told attendees of the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference that while the company is going through what he called a "competitive patch," there's no reason for investors to worry.

“We hit a competitive patch this quarter in our opinion that was compounded by these two storms,” Roberts said. “And that’s had an impact on our subscriber numbers a bit and even though, as we said, our overall customer relationships increased.”

Comcast has traditionally done a bit better than its counterparts when it comes to cord cutting. And while the company will tell you it's because of the "incredible innovation" behind services like its X1 set top box platform, the real reason is Comcast's growing monopoly over fixed-line broadband. As users frustrated by US telco failures to upgrade DSL connections, those users are heading to cable providers -- who then offer them TV service bundled with broadband for less than the cost of a broadband line alone.

While technically "cable subscribers" -- many of these users aren't even using the provided cable box -- they just signed up for traditional TV because it was cheaper. And there's certainly no guarantee these users plan to stick around once their promotions expire, especially as the number of streaming competitors grow,

Still, Roberts is quite correct to note that Comcast's growing monopoly over broadband (at the FCC's definition of 25 Mbps) puts it in a good position for growth, even if he tap dances around the competitive issues this is creating in many areas.

"We’re still adding broadband,” stated the CEO, who noted that the year's video subscriber tallies will largely be flat overall. “This was a difference of the question, specifically where it’s going to be positive in video. We’re right around for the full year where we were last year. So there’s no question of broadband. We have a growing business, it’s continued to grow.”