The nation’s 19 largest cable and telephone providers – representing about 94% of the market – acquired more than 1.7 million additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the second quarter, the fewest additions in three years, according to a report released Thursday by the Leichtman Research Group.
The top broadband providers now account for nearly 58 million subscribers, with cable distributors counting 31.5 million broadband subscribers and telcos 26.4 million subscribers, according to Leichtman.
Other key findings for the quarter included:
· Total broadband additions, in the traditionally weak second quarter, were the fewest since the second quarter of 2004, and about 400,000 less than in the second quarter of last year
· Charter was the only major broadband provider to record significantly more net broadband additions in the second quarter than a year ago
· All of the top telephone companies had fewer net broadband additions this quarter than in last year’s second quarter
· The top telephone companies added about 925,000 subscribers, representing 54% of the net broadband additions for the quarter
· The top cable broadband providers have a 54% share of the broadband market, with about a 5.1 million subscriber advantage over the telephone companies.
“While net broadband additions may be beginning to wane slightly, tens of millions of consumers will add high-speed Internet over the next few years,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, said in a prepared statement. “In a somewhat tighter market, broadband providers will need to be increasingly prudent in the subscribers that they acquire in order to help minimize churn.”
