• OneTRAK, Thursday, August 9, 2007 11:30 AM

A look at the trend of wireline video subscriber patterns in a few dozen Massachusetts communities after the introduction of Verizon's FiOS TV contains a mixed bag of news for the cable business. While initial incumbent cable subscriber losses can exceed 10%, as many as 40% of FiOS TV subscribers may be coming from satellite.

That finding is from a study by OneTRAK into subscriber patterns for Verizon in 34 cities and towns with a combined 285,000 homes. Comcast is the incumbent cable operator in all, while RCN Corp. offers service in nine. And while Verizon may have expanded the pie a bit, it likely wasn't by more than a few percentage points.

Thee study notes that it takes several years for a true pattern to emerge in the marketplace: "Verizon will likely continue to see double-digit penetration gains in markets where it launches FiOS TV service." Of course, the study was just a 90-day snapshot of a handful of towns and "changes in product offerings and marketing tactics will all play into individual market dynamics, which can alter the growth and decline curves of the combatants."

Read the whole story at OneTRAK »