AT&T still isn't quite seeing the "synergies" it promised when it paid $69 billion to acquire DirecTV. While the company's second quarter earnings report indicates that DirecTV added an impressive 342,000 subscribers on the quarter, the numbers also indicate that AT&T's U-Verse TV platform lost 391,000 subscribers, giving the company a net loss of 49,000 video subscribers during the second quarter. That's in part because AT&T's giving up on its U-Verse TV platform and driving those users to DirecTV.
But the fact the company posted a net loss suggests that cord cutting and defections to cable (usually to nab faster broadband speed bundles) continue to plague the telecom giant.
The company's broadband numbers weren't much to write home about either. The company saw a net loss of 110,000 broadband during the second quarter; it added 54,000 IP broadband customers, but shed 164,000 DSL subscribers, many in areas the company has refused to upgrade. And on wireless AT&T noted that it added 2.1 million net wireless subscribers, but many of these were connected devices and tablets (often on promotion), the company actually saw a net loss of 180,000 postpaid wireless phone subscribers, thanks in large part to T-Mobile.
In other words, AT&T saw losses in its three most valuable consumer subscriber metrics, despite spending $69 billion to become a telecom and television superpower. AT&T downplayed the losses, stating that they were due to "second quarter seasonality" and AT&T's focus on higher end, secure-credit customers -- but they're still not particularly flattering -- especially given similar losses the quarter before.
Still, AT&T saw second quarter consolidated revenues of $40.5 billion, up 22% from this time last year. That's thanks to its acquisition of DirecTV, which the company plans to capitalize on further later this year with the launch of not one, but three new streaming video services (technically four if you include their joint effort with the Chermin group).
"One year after our acquisition of DIRECTV, the success of the integration has exceeded our expectations," AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in a statement.
“And we’re about to introduce an OTT product that we believe will be a game changer,” Stephens added. “We expect the millions of people who don’t now subscribe to a video service and prefer a streaming option will be impressed.”