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Cablevision Loses Broadband Customers For First Time Ever
Thanks in Part to Damage From Sandy
Cablevision's latest quarterly earnings were released yesterday, with the company taking a bit of a beating related to repairs from hurricane Sandy. According to Cablevision, 60% of the company's New York area customers had services disrupted, and the carrier had to repair more than 450 miles of damaged cable at more than 16,000 locations. Thanks partially to the storm and destroyed homes, Cablevision lost 50,000 TV subscribers on the quarter, on top of losing 5,000 broadband customers and 10,000 voice customers. That's the first time Cablevision has posted a quarterly net loss for broadband subscribers in the company's history.
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SHoTTa35
@kfvaluation.com

SHoTTa35

Anon

....hence the first $5 increase, EVER

I figured Sandy was part of the reason but yeah, losing 50,000 TV subs is a lot of moola.

TV say average $45/month
Internet say average $40/month
Voice is $30/month

that totals about $2.75M/month!

Yeah, guess they wont be raising speeds anytime soon then.

meeeeeeeeee
join:2003-07-13
Newburgh, NY

meeeeeeeeee

Member

I wonder

How many of these subs were Verizon POTS telephone subs that were fast talked into the threefor when Verizon REFUSED to restore their POTS service. I know several that ALMOST were. If only we had a government to investigate such practices... *sigh*

NickD
Premium Member
join:2000-11-17
Princeton Junction, NJ

NickD

Premium Member

Re: I wonder

What about the people who got upgraded to FiOS earlier than anticipated because Verizon didn't want to replace the copper
CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

Re: I wonder

Earlier than anticipated? Big deal, they would have gotten it soon anyway. That slight savings in time does not justify leaving tens of thousands without service or forcing people to a service they don't want.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx to NickD

Member

to NickD
I was upgraded to FiOS but it is just running POTS. I do find it a bit odd though that at $54.95/month for basic OOL, Cablevision is no longer leading the pack in terms of speed. It wasn't that long ago when OOL was the fastest thing around for the price.
CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

Re: I wonder

I remember the day I switched from dial-up to OOL, it was incredible! It seemed like it took them forever to get it rolled out. If I recall, they started on the north shore and worked their way south so you would have had it before me. I would have sworn it started at $34 or $39/mo but maybe that was with the TV discount or a promo or something... been so long I can't remember.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx

Member

Re: I wonder

said by CXM_Splicer:

I remember the day I switched from dial-up to OOL, it was incredible! It seemed like it took them forever to get it rolled out. If I recall, they started on the north shore and worked their way south so you would have had it before me. I would have sworn it started at $34 or $39/mo but maybe that was with the TV discount or a promo or something... been so long I can't remember.

When I first signed up it was $39.95/month on a one-year contract and you had to buy your modem. While in the middle of my contract, they raised it $10 but I kept the $39.95 price until the contract was up.

I still own the modem. I originally had an SB4100 but received a notification from Cablevision a few years ago that it needed to be upgraded to a newer model. I told them I owned the modem and they responded I would own the replacement if I did a swap. I did the swap to an SB5100 and have kept the paperwork trail to prove ownership.

HardwareGeek
join:2003-11-15
Brooklyn, NY

HardwareGeek

Member

how?

How do they lose more voice customers than broadband customers if it's mainly because of Sandy?

kickass69
join:2002-06-03
Lake Hopatcong, NJ

kickass69

Member

Re: how?

Keep in mind someone who just has TV and Voice service can have the modem they get blocked from using the Internet. It's possible people gave up on Voice service and went with mobile phone service only.

HardwareGeek
join:2003-11-15
Brooklyn, NY

HardwareGeek

Member

Re: how?

You can do that with CV? I tried recently with my mom and they told her she couldn't have voice with out Internet. This was last week.

kickass69
join:2002-06-03
Lake Hopatcong, NJ

kickass69

Member

Re: how?

I've been told that more than once since they started Voice service on the phone as well as from techs who've been here for other issues.

DownTheShore
Pray for Ukraine
Premium Member
join:2003-12-02
Beautiful NJ

DownTheShore to HardwareGeek

Premium Member

to HardwareGeek
A lot of the owners who rent out their shore houses shut off broadband over the winter months, usually starting around October and start it up again when the rental season is about to start, so they can take advantage of whatever deal OOL is offering. So probably a good portion of them had already shut off the broadband portion of their service, which would mean less official loss of broadband customers due to the storm.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

ripple effect

the hurricane hit the northeast economy hard. there is no doubt many are gutting essentials to the BONE. however, one report had it right.. whoever could restore services fastest after the storm got the business (assuming the consumer had discretionary cash lying around). lots of churn due to this one issue. I suspect there will be a rash of overoccupancy apartments sucking dry tax revenue as people shack up and pay fewer taxes.

most likley the northeast will enter recession due to many flood insurance policies not paying the face amounts from NFIP or regular insurance covering storm & flooding damage in excess or under liability by regular insurers.

despite oil going down, gas prices are spiking in NY. the EXTRA 15% premium after the storm never came down vs NJ(as high as $1 a gallon difference).
there will be many writedowns that will carry against tax liabilities for years to come.

hate to say it, but so goes the northeast.. so goes the rest of the country.. into double dip.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· RqCRlQWk
DarienRedSox
join:2013-02-10
Darien, CT

DarienRedSox

Member

Reliability bad

CV was out for days in my neighborhood even after the power came back on. U-Verse was up and running the whole time, in fact having DSL with AT&T starting in 2004 I have only had one outage. Also CV has never seamed to get there DVR Plus working right. Hopefully they will get there act together soon and offer a DVR product, as well as reliability, that can compete with others.