• by Wayne Friedman , February 23, 2023

Mid-sized legacy pay TV distributor Altice USA suffered major financial setbacks in the fourth quarter as a result of continued declines in video and broadband subscribers, posting declining revenue and a big net quarterly loss.

As with other major pay TV-video providers, Altice has seen difficult business trends due to continued cord-cutting by consumers in its video business -- and more recently, weak or declining broadband subscribers.

Altice posted a big net loss of $193 million, versus net income of $252 million in the year-ago period. The company’s stock fell 5% in after-market trading to $4.11 and then recovered somewhat.

Altice revenues sank 6% to $2.4 billion in the period.

Overall residential video customers dropped 2% (52,000) to 2.44 million in the third quarter of 2022, with broadband subscribers decreasing by 0.2% (7,700)  to 4.28 million). The declines were more modest than earlier 2022 quarterly periods.

Somewhat good news was that the company’s adjusted cash flow (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) fell nearly at analysts expectations -- to $913 million. This was down from $1.1 billion in the same period a year ago.

Revenue at the company’s News & Advertising business unit revenue declined 10.8% to $151.8 million.

Dennis Mathew, chief executive officer of Altice, said in a release: 

“Looking ahead, we have a clear strategy centered around growing our broadband and mobile businesses...  and we are committed to executing with discipline, setting us on a path to return to sustainable customer, revenue and cash-flow growth.”