Comcast said today that it lost a net of 125,000 video subscribers in the third quarter,
The losses were not unexpected. Matt Strauss, a Comcast executive vice president, said in early September at an investors conference that the company was likely to lose from 100,000 to 150,000 video subscribers in the third quarter.
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Strauss blamed increased competition, and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which seriously damaged the states of Florida and Texas, causing many pay TV subscribers to jettison service, at least temporarily.
Still, the third quarter loss, which was revealed today in Comcast’s third quarter earnings report, nearly wipes out the cable operator’s entire net gain for all of 2016 when it added 161,000 video subscribers. (Comcast added a total of 8,000 video subscribers in the first two quarters of 2017.)
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AT&T this week said it lost 385,000 net video subscribers from its traditional pay TV services, DIRECTV and U-verse, and also blamed increasing competition and the hurricanes. (The company’s live streaming service added 296,000 net subs, helping offset the losses by DIRECTV and U-verse.)
Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, now has 22.4 million video subscribers.
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— Phillip Swann