For some time now, many cable TV companies, including Comcast, have been losing internet customers. One of the few companies that has been adding customers was Spectrum. Now, however, Spectrum’s CFO has announced that they expect to lose internet customers in the 4th quarter of 2023.
“I can certainly see that it’s likely that we could end up with negative internet net adds inside of Q4,” Spectrum’s Chief Financial Officer Jessica Fischer said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference.
This comes as 5G home internet services from T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and others have seen strong growth. Other companies offering fiber and even new, faster satellite internet options have also been growing.
For the first time, Americans have more options than ever. Previously many Americans had only cable internet or DSL to pick from for high speed internet. Now they may have four or five options with new 5G home internet plans.
These new options have helped drive the growth of cord cutting 2.0, in which Americans ditch not just cable TV but also cable internet.
Much like in the early days of cord cutting 1.0, the growth of 2.0 is slow right now. We are waiting for more providers to join the market. Amazon has announced plans to start offering home internet next year. Other providers are quickly building out new kinds of internet to give Americans options.
Over the next five years, cable providers will have to deal with a growing number of competitors in a business that was once seen as a safe bet to fight cord cutting. Internet is on the front line of the next generation of cord cutting.
Seeing both the number 1 and number 2 cable TV companies losing internet and TV customers is scary for the future of cable TV in America. For years many have said that cable TV companies would just replace lost TV revenue with internet revenue. Now, with internet subscribers also starting to drop they face a real issue of cord cutting coming for their internet customers also.
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