(Reuters) -U.S. telecom big Comcast on Monday forecast fourth-quarter broadband subscriber losses to exceed Wall Street estimates, damage by robust competitors from wi-fi suppliers and the impression of two hurricanes that rocked Florida.
Shares of the corporate fell 8.3%. Its dour forecast additionally dragged down smaller rival Charter Communications’ inventory by 6.5%.
Comcast expects broadband subscriber losses to be a little bit over 100,000 within the final three months of 2024, Dave Watson, president and CEO of Comcast Cable, stated on the UBS Global Media and Communications convention.
Analysts have been anticipating a lack of 64,400 subscribers within the quarter, in line with information from analysis agency Visible Alpha.
Comcast stated about 10,000 broadband losses are tied to Hurricanes Milton and Helene that made landfall in Florida inside two weeks of one another, disrupting companies.
The firm had earlier stated that the potential impression could possibly be considerably lower than the hit from Hurricane Ian in 2022, which had led to losses of 26,000 broadband prospects within the fourth quarter of that yr.
“It stays competitively intense, that has not modified and has been fairly constant all year long, specifically within the extra worth aware finish of the market place,” Watson stated.
Comcast has been shedding subscribers to wi-fi service suppliers akin to AT&T Verizon and T-Mobile which were attracting prospects with customizable and reasonably priced choices.
Comcast has additionally taken a success as a result of finish of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which backed web entry for low-income households within the U.S.
That led to a lack of 87,000 broadband prospects within the third quarter for Comcast. Excluding ACP’s impression, the corporate’s broadband noticed web additions of 9,000 in that interval.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Maju Samuel)
