LRG Study: Cable not hurting when it comes to broadband subscribers

While much has been made about the number of basic video subscribers fleeing cable like so many passengers jumping over the side of the Titanic, not nearly as much has been made about the possible reason why this is happening. It could be that cable has, after years of lip service, actually transformed into a broadband business and that video subs are just being repositioned.

"At the end of 2010 the top broadband providers in the U.S. cumulatively had over 75 million subscribers (and) despite an increasingly high level of broadband penetration, the top broadband providers still added 83 percent as many subscribers in 2010 as in 2009," said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst of the Leichtman Research Group.

According to Leichtman's research, cable actually added 2.3 million broadband subscribers in 2010, led by Comcast with 1.058 million adds. Top telephone operators, the research noted, also joined the party with 1.1 million new broadband subs. Cable, the breakdown goes, now has 41.5 million broadband subs; telcos have 33.5 million.

For more:
- see this news release

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