• by Wayne Friedman , May 3, 2019

Altice USA posted a slight 3% gain in first-quarter revenue -- with much of the rise coming from its broadband/internet business. It also had strong gains for its advanced advertising division.

Broadband revenues grew 11% to $775.6 million, with customers increasing for the quarter -- up a net 37,000, higher than the 26,000 in first quarter of 2018.

Video subscription revenues -- still the bulk of the company’s overall revenues -- slipped 1.5% to $1.02 billion. Altice’s video unit had a net loss of 10,000 subscribers in the quarter.

A year before in the same period, it had a net loss of 30,000.

Altice USA’s advanced advertising unit grew 6.8% at its a4 business -- its data and analytics subsidiary -- as well as seeing increases in Athena, a self-serve client application for campaign management.

Programming costs were a dual-edge outcome. While programming costs increased 4.6%, due primarily to an increase in contractual programming rates, this was partially offset by the decrease in its video customers.  

Going forward, Altice says programming cost per video subscriber are expected to see increases in the high single digits. The costs were up 7.4% in the first quarter.

Revenue grew 2.9% to $2.4 billion, with the company narrowing its net loss to $25 million from $129 million.