Small Ops Turn to Broadband for Growth

As a sluggish economy, stiff competition and nearly non-existent new housing formation continues to lead to basic video customer losses, small cable operators are increasingly turning to another product to drive growth - broadband - according to a panel discussion at the SNL Kagan Cable MSO Summit. Cable companies have lost a collective 8 million basic video subscribers since 2001 and the trend is expected to continue for the next several years. SNL Kagan estimates that cable customers will fall below 53 million in 2021, down from 58.9 million in 2011. But while basic video customers have been leaving for other providers, over the top services, or are just avoiding a video service all together, some smaller market MSOs have managed to mitigate some of the pain by switching their focus to higher margin high-speed data service.