Altice USA reports 2.7% revenue gain, slowing pay-TV losses of 28K for ex-Cablevision footprint in Q3

Altice USA reported slowing video customer losses across both its Optimum (formerly Cablevision) and Suddenlink footprints for the third quarter.

Optimum lost 28,000 pay-TV customers in the third quarter compared to 33,000 in the comparable period of 2015. Optimum grew its revenue by 2.7 percent in the third quarter, its best performance in two years, with the percentage of new customers taking higher speed broadband packages (defined by Altice as 100 Mbps and above) increased to 40 percent from just 13 percent in the second quarter. 

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For Suddenlink Communications, Altice USA reported video customer losses of 12,000, up from just 8,500 in the third quarter of 2015. Residential broadband subscriber growth also slowed to 17,000 from 21,600 in the year-ago time period. 

Altice said the percentage of new customers taking 100 Mbps and above broadband packages was also way up for Suddenlink in Q3, doubling to 32 percent. 

Revenue was up 6.7 percent for Suddenlink in the third quarter. 

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Asked during Thursday’s earnings call about further M&A in the U.S., Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said, “We obviously are going to pay attention. We are very focused on the operational side still here in the U.S., but we will pay attention to if there is any opportunity for us to do anything in the next couple of years.”

As Europe-based Altice continues to work through its simultaneous digestion of Cablevision, acquired for $17.7 billion and Suddenlink (purchased a controlling stake for $9.1 billion) Goei called 2016 “a year of integration and operation.”