The Last Shoe Drops: No Evidence of Video Cord Cutting

DISH Network lost approximately 94,000 net subscribers during the quarter ended March 31, 2009. So it now is possible to add up results from all the major video entertainment providers and draw conclusions about whether consumers are abandoning their multi-channel video subscriptions. 

 

The short answer: they are not. 

 

 DirecTV (News - Alert) reported a four-year-high net addition of 460,000 subscribers in the first quarter, up 67 percent year over year. AT&T added a net 284,000 video customers while Verizon (News - Alert) Communications added a net 299,000 new FiOS TV customers.

 

Comcast (News - Alert) lost about 78,000 video customers while Time Warner Cable added 36,000 net new video subscribers. Add it all up and there was a net 904,000 new video customers became buyers of linear video services during the first quarter. 

 

Those numbers clearly suggest either that the multichannel video entertainment business still is growing.