Cord Cutting Can Wait: Subscription TV Added 343,000 Subs in Q4

With the rise of Netflix, Amazon and other alternatives to subscription TV, there’s been plenty of talk about the death of cable. But based on fourth-quarter data, subscription TV may have more life left in it than people think.

The nation’s top cable, satellite and telco TV service providers grew their customer base sharply in the last quarter of 2011, reversing several years of steep decline. The nation’s top cable, satellite and telco TV service providers collectively added nearly 343,000 new video subscribers in the fourth quarter of last year. It’s a nice little turnaround considering the second quarter of 2011 saw record video customer losses of 195,700 for the top eight publicly traded TV service companies. The growth was driven by telecom-based services AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS, which added 208,000 and 194,000 video customers during the fourth quarter, respectively. Satellite companies DirecTV (up 125,000) and Dish Network (added 22,000) also contributed to this growth.