Altice USA reported lower first-quarter earnings as the cable MSO continued to shed broadband and video customers, while building its mobile and fiber businesses.
New York-based Altice USA lost 51,000 Optimum Fiber Internet residential broadband customers in the quarter, on top of the 29,300 lost in Q1. A year ago it lost 37,000 broadband customers. Altice USA finished the quarter with 4.09 million residential broadband customers.
The company also lost 72,800 residential video customers, leaving it with 2.02 million Optimum pay TV subscribers. In Q1, it lost 77,700 video customers.
Altice said it added 40,000 fiber customers in the quarter giving it a total of 434,000, a 74% increase from a year ago. Fiber penetration reached 14.3%, up from 9.4% a year ago.
Optimum Mobile lines rose by 33,000 in the quarter.
Net income dropped to $15.4 million, or 3 cents a share, from $78.3 million, or 17 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenue fell 3.6% to $2.2 billion.
Residential revenue was down 4.4% to $1.8 billion. Business services revenue rose 1.3% to $369.3 million. News and advertising revenue dropped 7.2% to $105.3 million.
“In the second quarter our company achieved significant improvements in operational metrics and customer satisfaction, growth in our fiber, mobile, and B2B businesses, and continued stabilization of ARPU across our base,” CEO Dennis Mathew said.
“We elevated product and network quality, introduced refreshed go-to-market strategies, which are starting to gain traction, and launched Entertainment TV, Optimum’s new low-cost internet TV package available exclusively on Optimum Stream, providing more choice and flexibility for customers,” Mathew said. “Looking ahead, we have an innovative roadmap of future product and experience enhancements that we are eager to bring to current and prospective customers this year and beyond, and we remain focused on advancing network and service quality, driving profitable customer relationships, and maintaining financial discipline.”
