Verizon Media Posts Another Strong Quarter, Fios Video Records Subscriber Losses

Verizon Media -- a division that includes Yahoo, AOL and Tech Crunch -- posted its second consecutive quarter of higher revenue -- up 10.4% in the first quarter to $1.9 billion.

This includes a 26% hike in year-over-year in advertising revenue, recovering from the pandemic lows of a year ago. Verizon says its demand-side platform revenue was up 45% versus the same quarter a year ago.

It also says there was a 13% year-over-year revenue gain from its owned-and-operated platforms.

This followed the fourth quarter of 2020, where revenue was up 11.4% to $2.3 billion.

In much of the pandemic year, Verizon Media had a series of revenue drops -- as many media companies did. Quarterly revenue was down 4% in the first quarter of 2020, 25% in the second quarter and 7.4% in the third quarter.

Verizon’s fiber-based pay TV service, Fios Video, took on 82,000 Fios Video net losses from an ongoing shift from traditional linear video to OTT offerings.

In 2002, Verizon Fios Video had a net loss of 7% of its subscribers (298,000) in 2020, ending the year at 3.85 million.

Rising Fios Internet subscribers and wireless business helped the company overall, climbing 4% to $32.9 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), was up 3% to $12.2 billion.

Next story loading loading..