Strong 2Q Growth for Digital
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 8/13/2001 10:40:00 AM
The cable industry reported robust growth for its three new product lines in the second quarter -- gains that came despite a slowing economy and weakness in the technology sector.
In a report comparing the first two quarters this year, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association said cable operators added 1.3 million digital-video subscribers, 920,000 cable-modem data subscribers and 200,000 cable-telephony subscribers.
For the three-month period ending June 30, the cable industry claimed 12.2 million digital-video subscribers, up 12 percent from the previous quarter.
Put another away, nearly 18 percent of U.S. cable subscribers have elected to purchase digital tiers, which typically include dozens of new video and music channels, electronic program guides and access to dozens of premium networks and pay-per-view movies.
The NCTA said cable-modem subscriptions grew by 20 percent, leaving the industry with 5.5 million high-speed-data customers.
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission said cable ended last year with 3.6 million data subscribers, giving the industry 51 percent of the market that includes competition from the four Baby Bell phone companies.
Although cable's data play continues to show solid growth, other firms haven't been so fortunate. In the past few weeks, digital-subscriber-line providers Rhythms NetConnections Inc. and Covad Communications Group Inc. announced plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
On the local phone front, cable operators -- primarily AT&T Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. -- ended the quarter with 1.3 million subscribers, up 18 percent.
If all cable telephone subscribers were controlled by one company, that company would be the eighth-largest local phone company in the United States, according to industry data kept by the United States Telecom Association.
AT&T and Cox continue to deploy circuit-switched technology in the local phone arena. Other MSOs have indicated that they prefer to test the reliability and cost-effectiveness of Internet-protocol telephony as a possible alternative to circuit-switched technology.
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