Cable Companies Have More Broadband Than TV Customers (PCMagazine)

• BY STEPHANIE MLOT
• AUGUST 18, 2014
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The top cable companies had more broadband customers than cable TV subscribers at the end of the quarter.

The top U.S. cable firms still have millions of pay TV customers, but for the first time this quarter, the top cable companies had more broadband customers than cable TV subscribers.

According to data from the Leichtman Research Group, the top cable companies - minus WideOpenWest (WOW)- had about 49,915,000 broadband subscribers at the second quarter, compared to about 49,910,000 cable TV subscribers.

The top cable firms, according to Leichtman, include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Cablevision, Suddenlink, Mediacom, and Cable One. Comcast now has about 21.3 million broadband Internet customers, up approximately 200,000 during the quarter, while Time Warner is at nearly 12 million with 86,000 adds in the last few months. Charter is at No. 3 with about 2.8 million, up 62,000.

Together with Internet provided by phone companies like AT&T and Verizon, the top broadband providers have about 85.9 million subscribers in the U.S.

"With the addition of more than 30 million broadband subscribers over the past decade, cable providers have clearly expanded well beyond their roots in cable TV service," Bruce Leichtman, principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, said in a statement. "As of the end of 2Q 2014, the top cable providers now have more broadband subscribers than cable TV subscribers."

Telephone companies have about 35 million broadband subscribers. AT&T topped the group with 16.4 million patrons, though it lost 55,000 customers during the quarter. Verizon is at 9 million, up 46,000.

As more and more streaming services bulk up their online offerings, cord cutting has been on the rise. But it hasn't yet taken the U.S. by storm. April data from Experian found that about 18.1 percent of U.S. households swapped traditional TV-viewing means for smartphones and tablets in 2013. That's up from 4.5 percent three years prior.

For more, see Aereo Alternatives: Tips From a Cord Cutter.

Chloe Albanesius contributed to this report.

Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in journalism and mass communications.