Why Cable Companies Are Actually Expecting Subscriber Increases In 2015

[Commentary] What cord-cutting? That was the message from top cable operators at the annual UBS media conference Dec. 7 to 9. But are the new numbers smoke and mirrors, or is the pay TV industry seeing encouraging signs of growth? After years of subscriber losses amid the boom in telecommunications and then digital over-the-top competitors like Netflix, the CEOs of Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable, which the former is planning to acquire, predicted they would return to full-year growth in pay TV customers for 2015 based on trends through early December.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable carrier, echoed the sentiment of improving trends. The growth "is a significant milestone, not only for us but for the industry," Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus told attendees. The last full year of growth for TWC was 2006, when it added 65,000 video customers. Why? The answer probably is that cable companies now are winning over some video subscribers that in the past chose satellite and telecommunication giants rather than increasing the overall pie of paid subscribers.