Cablevision, the Long Island, NY based cable TV service, has achieved a broadband penetration rate (broadband subscribers as a percentage of homes passed) of almost 49%.
That is the highest of any major broadband service provider in North America. Its broadband competitor is Verizon, no push over when it comes to marketing consumer services.
Cablevision Results Dec. 31, 2007 Sep. 30, 2007 Dec. 31, 2006
Subs in 000s
Homes Passed 4,679 4,647 4,562
Broadband subs 2,282 2,220 2,039
Penetration 48.8% 47.8% 44.7%
Voice 1,592 1,490 1,209
Voice % 34.0% 32.1% 26.5%
TV 66.8% 67.2% 68.5%
Verizon, the incumbent telco in most of Cablevision’s territory, is pushing hard to make its FiOS fiber optic broadband and pay-TV service available throughout Cablevision’s footprint.
Cablevision appears to have been the most aggressive at selling bundles of services. It launched bundles by offering a triple play for $99.
Its quarterly report for the period ending December 31, 2007 shows the results with full year 2007 revenue increasing 11.3% to $6.484 billion. It has added 798,000 revenue-generating units (RGUs) since the fourth quarter of 2006.
For the fourth quarter:
Optimum Online broadband customers up 62,000 or 2.8% from September 2007 and 243,000 or 11.9% from December 2006. It has added 208,000 revenue generating units including new basic and digital video, high-speed data and voice units.
– Averaged monthly revenue per basic video subscriber (RPS) of $125.10.
– Basic video customers up 1,000 from September 2007 and down less than 4,000 or 0.1% from December 2006. The slow growth may be due to Verizon’s aggressive efforts to sell its FiOS pay-TV service, as well perhaps, to DirecTV’s continued strong growth.
– Interactive Optimum digital video customers up 43,000 or 1.7% from September 2007 and 181,000 or 7.4% from December 2006.
– Optimum Voice customers up 102,000 or 6.8% from September 2007 and 383,000 or 31.7% from December 2006. Most, perhaps all, of Cablevision’s phone subscribers have been snatched from Verizon.
– Company revenue grew 10.8% to $1.842 billion compared to the prior year period.
Cablevision CEO James L. Dolan said the company had strong subscriber increases in digital video, voice and data and that the company leads the cable TV industry in penetration rates.