Altice USA Loses 68,000 Video Subscribers as Quarterly Earnings Fall

Etan Vlessing
·3 min read

U.S. cable giant Altice USA lost few video subscribers during the second quarter, even as its quarterly earnings fell on lower overall revenue as expected by Wall Street.

The company said it lost 68,300 video subscribers during the three months to June 30, 2023, against a loss of 84,500 video customers in the year-ago period. For the last quarter, Altice USA posted net income attributable to shareholders at $78.3 million, against $106.2 million earned in the second quarter of 2022.

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That was on overall revenues falling 5.6 percent to $2.32 billion. The Zack Consensus Estimate had forecast revenues to be $2.33 billion, down 5.4 percent from the year-ago quarter. Residential revenue declined 5.7 percent year-on-year to $1.84 billion during the latest second quarter.

Altice USA offers Internet broadband, video and mobile phone services to around 5 million residential and business customers across 21 U.S. states through its Optimum brand. The company also owns national, international and business news operations through its News 12, Cheddar News and i24NEWS networks.

“I am pleased with the progress we are making as we act with discipline and focus to execute on our mission for Optimum to be the connectivity provider of choice across all the communities we serve. In the second quarter we achieved sustainable operational and financial improvements across the business, with significant achievements in our customer experience and field operations translating into higher customer satisfaction metrics and reduced call volume and service visits,” Altice USA chairman and CEO Dennis Mathew said in a statement.

Cable TV companies like Altice USA face stepped-up cord-cutting as TV viewers increasingly opt for streaming services like Netflix. On broadband Internet, the company cut its net losses of 37,000 customers during the latest quarter, compared to 39,000 losses in the same period of 2022.

During an after-market analyst call, Mathew addressed a corruption investigation at Altice’s operations in Europe, especially in Portugal where a fraud probe is underway. “In response to these circumstances in Portugal, we have made the immediate and prudent decision to launch our own investigation at Altice USA,” he reported.

That has led to the departure of the chief procurement officer of Altice USA, Yossi Benchetrit, after he was placed on leave. Former Comcast exec Jennifer Yohe is the new chief procurement officer. Mathew added that a review of the company’s supplier and vendor relationships was underway, which includes a pause on some fiber capital upgrade expenditures until the internal investigation is completed.

“In summary, we are committed to conducting our business with the highest integrity and we’ll continue to move forward operating with the best interest of our stockholders, customers and employees at the forefront,” he added.

Mathew also chose not to address media reports of a possible sale of Cheddar News, the streaming news channel acquired for $200 million in 2019. “We’re not going to address rumors or press speculation today on Cheddar. We’re very focused on executing and driving our strategy across all of our lines of business,” he said.

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