Video Losses Improve at Mediacom

Mediacom Communications reported fourth quarter results Thursday (Feb. 22), improving video losses significantly while stepping up gains in broadband and voice customers compared to the prior year.

Mediacom finished Q4 with 821,000 video subscribers, down by about 2,000 but still a big improvement over the same period in the prior year when the company lost 6,000 video customers. High-speed data subscriber additions also improved – to 15,000 compared with 11,000 in 2016. Voice customer additions also improved to 22,000 versus 12,000 in the prior year.

Revenue for the quarter was $471.8 million (up 2.5%), and operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA, a measure of cash flow) was relatively flat at $184.1 million (up 0.5%). In a statement Mediacom said excluding advertising revenue – which benefitted from the 2016 presidential election – OIBDA would have increased by 3.1% and revenue would have been up 3.5% during the period.

For the full year, revenue of $1.88 billion increased 3.7% and OIBDA rose 2.6% to $712 million. Excluding advertising, Mediacom said revenue would have been up 4.6% and OIBDA would have increased 4.6% for the full year.

Mediacom is the fifth largest cable operator in the country, with 821,000 video customers and 1.4 million customer relationships.