According to the Leichtman Research Group, the twenty largest cable and telephone providers in the US, representing about 94% of the market, acquired approximately 1.3 million net
additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the third quarter of 2008. These top broadband providers now account for nearly 66.7 million subscribers. Cable companies have 36.5 million broadband
subscribers, and telephone companies have about 30.2 million subscribers.
Other broadband findings for the quarter include:
- The top cable companies added over 870,000
subscribers, representing 67% of the net broadband additions for the quarter versus the top telephone companies
- Overall, broadband additions in 3Q 2008 amounted to 61% of those
in 3Q 2007, with cable having 82% as many additions as a year ago, and Telcos 40%
- The top cable broadband providers have a 55% share of the overall market, with a 6.3 million
subscriber advantage over the top telephone companies
Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, Inc., said "Over the past two quarters the top cable providers
accounted for 71% of the net broadband additions... cable's recent success... is more a function of the telcos' shift in focus towards higher value subscribers while cable has been...
marketing broadband as part of its nearly ubiquitously available Triple Play bundles."
Cable & Telephone Internet Providers |
Broadband Internet Provider | Subscribers at End of 3Q 2008 | Net Adds in 3Q 2008 |
Cable Companies |
Comcast | 14,738,000 | 381,000 |
Time Warner | 8,634,000 | 222,000 |
Cox | 3,945,000 | 60,000 |
Charter | 2,858,200 | 70,900 |
Cablevision | 2,427,000 | 32,000 |
Mediacom | 726,000 | 24,000 |
Insight | 445,100 | 20,500 |
Cable ONE | 368,614 | 7,345 |
RCN | 301,000 | 6,000 |
Other Major Private Cable Companies | 2,050,000 | 50,000 |
Total Top Cable | 36,492,914
| 873,745 |
Telephone Companies |
AT&T | 14,841,000 | 148,000 |
Verizon | 8,459,000 | 129,000 |
Qwest | 2,793,000 | 61,000 |
Embarq | 1,388,000 | 24,000 |
Windstream | 962,700 | 28,400 |
CenturyTel | 628,000 | 21,000 |
Frontier | 571,946 | 12,646 |
FairPoint | 294,134 | (278) |
Cincinnati Bell | 231,100 | 2,100 |
Total Top Telephone Companies | 30,168,880 | 425,868 |
Total Broadband | 66,661,794
| 1,299,613 |
Sources: The Companies and Leichtman Research
Group, Inc. |
And, selections from a separate LRG study HDTV 2008: Consumer Awareness, Interest and Ownership, show that 34% of U.S.
households have at least one HDTV set, about double the percentage of households that had such TVs two years ago. Overall, 22% of all households purchased a new TV set in the past 12 months, with 43%
of this group spending over $1,000 on a new TV.
LRG estimates that about 58% of all HD households are now watching HD programming from a multi-channel video provider, up from 53% last
year. However, about 18% of individuals with an HDTV continue to think that they are watching HD programming, but are not.
Other findings include:
- 38% of HD owners say
that replacing an old/broken set or wanting to buy a new TV set was the most important reason for getting their HDTV, compared to 22% citing picture quality, and 7% the quality of HD
programming or the number of HD channels
- 44% with annual household incomes over $50,000 have an HDTV compared to 20% with annual household incomes under $50,000
- 33% of
HDTV owners have more than one HDTV set, and 25% are likely to get another HDTV set in the next year
- 9% of HD owners say that they switched multi-channel video providers when they
purchased their HDTV
- 42% of HDTV owners say that they were told how to receive HD programming when they purchased their set
For more information about the LRG Broadband study, please visit here, or about
HDTV, visit here.