First quarter data from SNL Kagan reflects what earnings reports from cable, satellite and telco service providers have been saying: cable sub numbers continue to fall, satellite numbers are steady and even slightly up and telco TV is hot.
According to data from the analyst firm, cable subscriber numbers were down from 24.1 million to 23.2 million in the top 15 markets and telco TV subs went up from 3.5 million to 4.4 million. Satellite figures in these markets were mixed.
New York and Los Angeles were "far and away the largest multichannel markets" followed by Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston. While Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) remained the largest multichannel operator nationwide, Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC) provided service to the largest DMA with 2.9 million subs in the New York area. Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) had 1.7 million in L.A. and Philadelphia had 1.6 million in Philadelphia.
Interestingly, Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) largest FiOS clusters were in New York, where it competes with Cablevision and Time Warner Cable followed by Comcast's home base of Philadelphia.
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