Comcast, the largest US cable TV operator, added 488,000 broadband subscribers in Q4, bringing its total broadband base to 11.5 million. The company also added 481,000 new phone subscribers, bringing that total to 2.5 million. Comcast also saw 110,000 new cable subscribers in the quarter, up from 28,000 added during the same period in 2005.
Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts attributed the subscriber growth, a company record, to the triple-play bundles of broadband, pay-TV and phone services it’s offering. He said Comcast is more successful since it began rolling out phone service in 2005 and selling bundles of services.
Along with most other cablecos, Comcast is busy rolling out phone service while the phone companies are rolling out pay-TV services. At this point, the cablecos are ahead, having added more phone subscribers than the phone companies have added pay-TV subscribers.
It’s also getting into wireless business through the joint venture Comcast and three other cable companies formed with Sprint, which will give them a mobile phone service to compete with AT&T and Verizon.
Comcast reported $7 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, up from $5.4 billion in the year-ago quarter. Income for the quarter was $390 million (18 cents per share), up from $133 million (six cents a share) in the prior year.
The company said it wants to take advantage of its momentum in selling phone service to residencies and small businesses. Only 5.7% of the homes reached by Comcast’s phone service are taking the product; its goal is a 20% share.
“We think we can capture market share now,” Roberts said. “This is the time to extend our lead in the market.” Such growth will require an increase in capital expenditure. Comcast says its capex will be $5.7 billion in 2007, up from $4.6 billion in 2006. Some 75% of that, the company said, will be for phone installations.
Meanwhile Time Warner Cable reached 6.6 million broadband subscribers at the end of 2006. That’s a market penetration of almost 26% of homes passed. It added 206,000 new customers, not including those gained in the Adelphia and Comcast deals.
Growth in each of its triple-play services – broadband, pay-TV and phone – helped Time Warner Cable achieve a fourth-quarter operating profit jump of 26% to $633 million, with revenue up 58% to $3.65 billion. TWC added 211,000 new phone customers in the quarter, bringing its total to 1.9 million.
The company expects to continue its growth in 2007 because it’ll be rolling out triple-play bundles to more markets and upgrading newly acquired systems.
AOL, which has made most of its content and services free, said its advertising sales growth outpaced the industry average. Fourth-quarter online ad sales rose 49%. However, AOL’s total revenue fell 8% to $1.86 billion because of restructuring charges and a continued decline in dial-up Internet subscribers. Operating income for AOL fell 10%.