Altice USA saw profitability and revenue drop Wednesday after it reported accelerated losses among residential broadband subscribers in the first quarter.
Residential broadband users declined by 19,000 in the first quarter vs. 12,000 in the same period last year.
But the Long Island cable company hopes a recently introduced mobile/home internet bundle, along with the deployment of 8 Gbps fiber services in its Eastern footprint and an improved customer experience focus will rekindle customer growth.
Total revenue for the No. 4 U.S. cable operator was down 5.3% year over year in Q1 to $2.29 billion, while net income declined to $25.9 million vs. $196.6.
Adjusted EBITDA declined 12.4% to $868.4 million.
You can read Altice USA's Q1 earnings release here.
Still, Altice USA stock rose nearly 7% in after-hours trading Wednesday, with Wall Street seeming to buy the No. 4 U.S. cable company's narrative about returning to sustainable growth.
Within the overall broadband umbrella, fiber deployment had its best quarter yet, adding 38,000 customers. In the second half of this year, Altice plans to deploy symmetrical 8 Gbps services across its Eastern fiber footprint
There was also (slightly) improved performance for bundled linear video, which saw only 60,000 Altice cord-cutters in the first quarter vs. 73,600 in the same January-March period last year.
Meanwhile, Altice's fledgling mobile unit added 8,000 lines in Q1. The company just launched its Optimum Complete Internet + Mobile bundling strategy, hoping low-priced 5G wireless service will lure customers to its core connectivity offering, much as these bundles have already done for Comcast and Charter.
Altice is also touting a 24-point Net Promotor Score improvement following a recent customer experience push.
“Altice USA’s first-quarter results reflect a continuation of the strategy we introduced in February centered on growing our broadband and mobile businesses to set a path to return to sustainable customer, revenue, and cash flow growth,” Altice USA CEO Dennis Mathew said in a statement.
“The company made significant progress in driving key initiatives to increase the reliability and performance of our networks and enhance our products and customer experience, which contributed to an exceptional quarter in terms of broadband network construction as well as the best ever fiber net additions,” Mathew added. “As we move through 2023, we will continue to build on our go-to-market strategies to provide customers with seamless connections, flexibility and simplicity as evidenced by this week’s introduction of Optimum Complete, which combines our powerful internet and mobile products into one bundle to deliver the full portfolio of Optimum connectivity solutions at a great value.”
