There are now more Broadband subscribers than Pay-TV subscribers in the US

Leichtman Research Group (LRG) found that the fourteen largest cable and telephone providers in the US — representing about 95% of the market — acquired about 960,000 net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in 1Q 2017.

These top broadband providers now account for 93.9 million subscribers — with top cable companies having 59.4 million broadband subscribers, and top telephone companies having 34.5 million subscribers.

Findings for the quarter include:

• Overall, broadband additions in 1Q 2017 were 85% of those in 1Q 2016
• The top cable companies added about 1,000,000 subscribers in 1Q 2017 — 90% of the net additions for the top cable companies in 1Q 2016
• The top telephone companies lost about 45,000 subscribers in 1Q 2017 — compared to a gain of about 10,000 broadband subscribers in 1Q 2016
  • Telco providers have had net broadband losses in seven of the past eight quarters
• Over the past year, there were about 2,530,000 net broadband adds — compared to about 3,035,000 over the prior year

“With the addition of nearly one million subscribers in the quarter, the top cable and Telco broadband providers in the US cumulatively now account for over 93.9 million subscribers in the US,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “In the first quarter of 2017, the number of broadband subscribers surpassed the number of pay-TV subscribers in the US.”