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Telecom giant Verizon saw its pay TV subscriber growth slow during the first quarter, while big cable operators have reported improved momentum.
The company on Thursday said it added 57,000 FiOS TV subscribers in the period, down from 169,000 in the year-ago period and 92,000 in the fourth quarter. Analysts had on average expected 135,000 net additions.
In comparison, Comcast earlier this week reported its second quarterly video subscriber gain in a row. Time Warner Cable earlier on Thursday posted its strongest residential video subscriber quarter in five years as it lost fewer customers than in the year-ago period.
“Net adds for FiOS…fell short of both our and consensus expectations,” said Barclays Capital analyst Amir Rozwadowski.
For FiOS Internet, the company reported net additions of 98,000 subscribers, compared to his and Wall Street consensus expectations of 150,000 and 153,000, respectively.
Verizon ended March with a total of 6.2 million FiOS Internet and 5.3 million FiOS video subscribers.
Verizon on Thursday also said that for the first time, its total quarterly FiOS revenue surpassed $3 billion in the first quarter.
E-mail: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
