Pay-TV providers controlling 93% of the market lost about 4.7 million net video subscribers last year vs. a pro forma net loss of about 4.9 million in 2020, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. The loss of 2.7 million cable video subscribers in 2021 compared with an exodus of 1.9 million in the prior year, it said. Comcast shed 1.7 million subscribers to end 2021 with 18.2 million; Charter dropped 367,000 to end at 15.8 million, it said. Other traditional pay-TV services lost 2.9 million subs vs. a loss of 3.8 million in 2020. DirecTV lost 1.9 million to end with 14.6 million customers; Dish TV lost 595,000 to 8.2 million, and 282,000 left Verizon Fios, bringing its subscriber count to 3.6 million. Top vMVPDs added 895,000 subs last year vs. a gain of 915,000 in 2020, led by fuboTV, which added 581,000 subscribers to end the year with 1.1 million. Hulu+ Live TV remains the leading vMVPD, adding 300,000 subs for a total 4.3 million; Sling TV added 12,000 accounts for a total 2.5 million. The top seven cable companies have 41.3 million video subscribers; other traditional pay-TV services have 26.8 million and the top publicly reported vMVPD services have 7.9 million, it said.
WideOpenWest will spend $40 million over the next two to three years on extending its fiber network to parts of Orange County, Florida, CEO Teresa Elder said during a call Thursday announcing its latest quarterly results, in addition to $60 million it will spend over the next two to three years on fiber expansion to greenfield areas of Seminole County, Florida, announced earlier this month. Elder said the Orange County focus will be on the northern suburbs rather than the Orlando metro area. Chief Financial Officer John Rego said construction should start in the second half of this year, with the first Greenfield customers expected to come in early 2023. He said the two projects combined will take its network past 100,000 new homes. WOW said it ended 2021 with revenue from continuing operations of $725.7 million, down $45 million. It said it finished the year with 511,700 high-speed data subscribers, up 12,900 year over year. It said broadband generated $399.1 million for the year, up $40.1 million from 2020. Rego said that partially offset year-over-year declines in video and telephony revenue of 13% and 12.1%, respectively. WOW stock closed at $16.96, down 3.8%.
The FCC committed an additional nearly $603 million in Emergency Connectivity Fund support, bringing the total to more than $3.8 billion so far, said a news release Monday. The new funding will support 1,651 schools, 85 libraries and 14 consortiums. “Today’s announcement will help an additional million children get the internet access and technology needed for success in today’s virtual and hybrid classrooms,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
Four companies will pay $6.3 million in penalties for 911 outages last year, the FCC announced Friday. Some said they had made procedural changes to avoid a repeat. Lumen will pay $3.8 million, Intrado $1.75 million, AT&T $460,000 and Verizon $274,000. Both Lumen and AT&T said their blackouts involved work by vendor Intrado. See our news bulletin here.
Governments worldwide are generally failing at making more spectrum available for 5G, former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Tuesday at the virtual 5G Manufacturing Forum. “Not enough attention is being placed and not enough spectrum is being cleared … given the transformational nature” of 5G, O’Rielly said. Other speakers said challenges remain to broader use of 5G by manufacturers.
Open radio access networks are likely to dominate 6G, taking multiple forms on different networks, the Brooklyn 6G virtual Summit heard Monday. Experts agreed 6G will likely be deployed starting as early as 2029.
About 819,000 foldable smartphones were sold globally in Q2, up 147% sequentially and 0.3% growth year over year, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. In Q3, DSCC expects 215% quarter-on-quarter and 480% year-over-year increases to 2.6 million. It’s forecasting 46% quarter-on-quarter and 450% year-over-year growth in Q4 to 3.8 million. It credits the launch of Samsung’s “aggressively priced” Z Flip 3, $999, and the debut of Samsung’s “full featured” Z Fold 3, $1,799. “These attractive products are backed by a reported $2B spend by Samsung in promotions and marketing which are significantly increasing consumer awareness of foldable smartphones,” said DSCC CEO Ross Young.
Virtual MVPDs Sling TV and fuboTV were the sole gainers in Q2 among major pay-TV providers who give regular reports, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. Sling TV added 65,000 subscribers in the quarter to reach 2.4 million. Sports-focused fuboTV added over 91,000 subscribers, reaching 681,721 subscribers, and Hulu+Live TV lost 100,000 subscribers to 3.7 million. The vMVPD figures don’t include YouTube TV or Philo, which don’t provide regular reports. Total pay-TV subscriber losses were 1.2 million in the quarter, down from 1.5 million in Q2 2020, said LRG. Traditional pay-TV providers continued to shed subscribers, with Comcast losing 399,000 to 18.6 million, while Charter lost 50,000 to 16 million, Cox 60,000 to 3.5 million and Altice 48,300 to 2.9 million. Among other traditional pay-TV services, AT&T Premium, including DirecTV, U-verse and AT&T TV, dropped 473,000 customers; Dish 132,000 to 8.6 million; Fios 63,000 to 3.8 million; and Frontier 30,000 to 423,000, said the report.
Qualcomm wants to outbid Magna International and buy Veoneer for $37 a share in an all-cash $4.6 billion transaction that would bring a “competitive and open” combined advanced driver assistance systems platform to automakers and tier 1 suppliers “at scale,” said Qualcomm Thursday. Magna and Veoneer announced a definitive agreement July 22 for Magna to buy Veoneer for $31.25 a share in a $3.8 billion cash deal. Qualcomm “continues to see traction in automotive, with a revenue-design win pipeline of approximately $10 billion,” it said now. Qualcomm’s board unanimously ratified the Veoneer offer, but Qualcomm shareholder approval won’t be required, it said. Veoneer and Magna didn’t respond to queries Thursday.
Slightly fewer than 10% of U.S. internet subscribers were provisioned for gigabit speeds at the end of Q1, compared with 3.8% in Q1 2020, OpenVault said Tuesday. It said the portion of subscribers provisioned for such rose 75% over the past two quarters. It said the monthly weighted average data used by subscribers in Q1 was 461.7 GB, up nearly 15% from Q1 2020. It said data usage was relatively flat compared with Q1, but usage is elevated from pre-pandemic.