Altice USA reported a loss in the fourth quarter as it shed video and broadband subscribers.
Continuing the cord-cutting trend across the industry, Altice said it lost 53,000 residential Optimum video customers in the quarter. For the year, the company’s residential video subscriber total was down 293,000.
The company also lost 7,700 broadband subscribers, finishing the year with 4.3 million, and said it was slowing its plans to upgrade broadband customers to fiber.
New CEO Dennis Mathew announced a series of management changes, including Marc Sirota becoming chief financial officer, replacing Mike Grau, who is retiring.
David Williams was named executive VP and chief revenue officer, succeeding Matthew Grover, who is retiring.
Sirota and Williams both joined Altice from Comcast.
The company also named Leroy Williams as executive VP, chief growth officer. He joined the company from Samsung Electronics America, where he was chief product officer.
Altice’s $193.1 million fourth-quarter loss — or 43 cents a share — compares to net income of $251.7 million, or 56 cents a share, a year ago.
Overall revenue fell 6% to $2.37 billion. Residential revenue dropped 5%, business services revenue dropped 9.3% and news and advertising declined 10.8%.
Video revenue was $781.9 million in the quarter, down from $850.3 million a year ago.
Broadband revenue dropped to $960.6 million from $972.9 million a year ago.
The company said it increased the number of fiber-to-the-home broadband customers in the quarter. Net adds were 36,000 in the quarter as total fiber broadband customers reached 172,000 at the end of the year.
But the company told analysts that it will be pulling back on aggressive fiber upgrade plans because of capital constraints, Evercore ISI analyst James Ratcliffe said.
While the company’s revenue and EBITDA were below expectations, broadband and video subscribers losses were lighter than forecast, Ratcliffe said. ■
