Verizon Joins Cord Cutting Parade, Loses 17,000 TV Customers Verizon has joined the cord cutting parade, the company's second quarter earnings indicating that the telco lost 17,000 pay TV subscribers during the second quarter. Still, Verizon's losses weren't quite as bad as other companies; Altice lost 37,000 traditional pay TV subscribers last quarter, AT&T lost 351,000, Comcast lost 34,000, and Charter lost 90,000. Still, the 17,000 TV subscribers lost by Verizon marks the third consecutive quarter it has seen a decline in traditional video subscribers since the company's entry into the TV business back in 2006.

And while Verizon did manage to add 49,00 FiOS broadband customers last quarter, it lost 72,000 DSL customers -- resulting in a net loss in both TV and broadband subscribers during the quarter. All told, at the end of the second quarter, Verizon still laid claim to a total of 5.7 million Fios Internet connections and 4.7 million Fios Video connections. As always, Verizon performed notably better in wireless, despite the ongoing heated competition from T-Mobile. The company said it added 614,000 valuable postpaid wireless subscribers, thanks largely to the company's decision to return to offering unlimited data plans executives previously tried to claim customers didn't need or want. Meanwhile Verizon executives continued to downplay rumors that the company is looking for merger and acquisition opportunities, despite the company having just reportedly made a rejected $100 billion offer to acquire Charter Communications. That deal was of interest to Verizon as a way to fuel the company's fifth-generation wireless ambitions. "We're very comfortable with the assets we have today," said the CFO. "If there is an opportunity to add something that accelerates the strategy at a reasonable price, we will. But we think we have the assets we think we need to be effective at this point in time." "We're very comfortable with the assets we have today," said the CFO. "If there is an opportunity to add something that accelerates the strategy at a reasonable price, we will. But we think we have the assets we think we need to be effective at this point in time."







News Jump Charter Relaunches Free 60-day Internet And Wi-Fi Offer; NCTA: FCC Should Stick With 25/3 Speed Threshold; + more news Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 23 comments

ansky

join:2009-05-18

West Orange, NJ 10 recommendations ansky Member That's me I'm one of the cord cutters from the second quarter. There were 2 factors in my decision. The first factor was Verizon's arrogance. My bill just kept going up, up, and up for the same level of service. I called Verizon on 4 separate occasions to ask for a better deal and they refused every time. So I called their bluff and cancelled. My second reason was that I determined that about 90% of my TV viewing was on the basic channels such as NBC and CBS. So I put up an antenna and now I'm getting all my TV programming for free.

maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 2 recommendations maartena Premium Member Half a million in one quarter.... 2015 saw 1.1 million cut the cord.

2016 saw 1.4 million cut the cord.



We're only halfway through the year, and we have already surpassed that 1.1 million mark of 2015, with well over half a million in subscriber losses with all the major players, and several (including Dish Networks) have not announced yet....



I would not be surprised to see this year's total number reach 2 million at this point, but around 1.8 million seems very likely.



I know it is partially the media companies who are to blame, refusing to allow people to subscribe to individual channels and forcing the cable companies to take on bundles of their channels. But the problem here is that entities like Viacom and Discovery/Scripps are thinking of offering their own channel and/or streaming services directly to the public, cutting out the cable companies altogether. Granted, that will also be a bundle of all of their channels and programming, but it becomes a lot easier to cut streaming packages when you don't use them with individual packages like that, allowing you to save a lot of money in the long run.



If the cable companies don't start making changes that will appease the customer, they will eventually become irrelevant as a subscription TV company, and will become broadband-only companies. The media companies will offer their channels and programming directly to the public over the internet, eliminating one of the middle-men, and allowing consumers to choose both their devices and their location (to a point, need decent internet and typically within US borders for US services) for their service at any time.



The flexibility that streaming packages offer is getting greater and greater, and the offerings of "channels in a grid guide with a DVR" are getting slimmer and slimmer.... and more expensive.



The more consumers leave, the fatter the price increase will probably be in Jan 2018, so those staying on cable: Prepare to bend over just a bit more than last year's rape.