Despite a slowdown in subscriber growth, the Internet is still propelling Comcast.
The country’s largest cable company added 180,000 Internet customers in the April-June quarter, the smallest gain in at least two years. That brings its total Internet subscribers to 22.6 million.
Comcast’s Internet customers surpassed its cable customers in the second quarter, and the company finished June down 69,000 TV customers, to 22.3 million.
Comcast was the dominant provider of cable television and Internet service in Chattanooga for years, but EPB’s entry into fiber optic telecommunications five years ago appears to have cut into Comcast’s business in Chattanooga.
Comcast this month is launching the fastest Internet available in Chattanooga – GigabitPro, capable of 2 gigabit-per-second Internet speed. That is twice the Gig speed that EPB debuted across the city in 2010 as the first broadband provider in the Western Hemisphere to offer such high-speed web connections throughout an entire city.
But Comcast’s new service is priced at $299 a month for residential service (after a $159 introductory rate) and requires up to $1,000 for connections and activation fees and a two-year contract.
By contrast, EPB’s Gig service costs residential customers $69.99 a month.
EPB said last week it has nearly 74,000 residential and commercial customers of at least one of its cable TV, Internet or telephone services, which the electric utility rolled out across the city starting in 2010. Many, if not most, of those are likely to have previously been Comcast customers.
EPB said it has nearly 5,900 subscribers of its Gig Internet service.
Comcast does not detail subscription rates within local markets.
Nationwide, fears about a larger Comcast’s dominance of the high-speed Internet market led to the downfall in April of its deal to acquire Time Warner Cable.
Regulators worried Comcast could undermine online video competitors by controlling how they reached many customers.
Comcast this month announced an Internet video service of its own – Stream – that will include broadcast channels and HBO for $15 a month. It’s only for its own Internet customers.
The company is launching Stream as online TV options that don’t require a cable subscription proliferate, while cable and satellite TV subscribers start to slip. Channels like Lifetime, Showtime, CBS and HBO have launched online video services. Dish Network’s Sling TV gives you a “skinny bundle” of about 20 channels for $20 a month. Verizon is working on a mobile TV service that’s expected to launch this summer.
These come amid growing consolidation in traditional TV companies. Regulators are expected to soon approve AT&T’s purchase of satellite TV provider DirecTV, while Charter Communications wants to buy Time Warner Cable and a smaller cable operator called Bright House Networks.
Comcast’s Internet revenue rose 10 percent to $3.1 billion in the second quarter, thanks to new customers and subscribers upgrading to higher speeds.
Video revenue rose 3.7 percent to $5.43 billion, even as subscribers declined, helped by add-ons like signing up for another set-top box.
Comcast also owns NBCUniversal, and revenue in that division rose 20 percent in the second quarter, to $7.23 billion, because of box office hits like “Jurassic World” and “Pitch Perfect 2.” Filmed entertainment revenue nearly doubled, to $2.27 billion. Revenue dipped 1 percent for the company’s cable networks, which include CNBC, Bravo, USA Network and E! Entertainment, and was flat for its broadcast networks, NBC and Telemundo.