Altice USA reported continued progress with its FTTH including the launch of 1Gbps symmetrical IP fiber broadband services in select areas of Long Island. While building the FTTH network, Altice USA also continues to roll out enhanced broadband services to its customers on its existing hybrid fiber coax (DOCSIS) cable network. 1Gbps broadband services are expected to be available across the whole Optimum footprint in 2019 through Digital Switched Video upgrades. In addition, further 1Gbps capacity will be added in certain areas in the Suddenlink footprint, as well as continuing to build new homes at an accelerated pace.
Altice USA reported Q3 revenue of $2.42 billion, driven by Residential revenue growth of +2.4%, Business Services revenue growth of +6.0% and advertising revenue growth of +37.8% compared to the same period a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA grew +5.8% YoY in Q3 2018 to $1.07 billion.
Altice USA Operational Highlights
- Total unique Residential customer relationships stable YoY (+0.1% YoY) with quarterly net losses of -5k in Q3 2018 improving compared to prior year (-8k in Q3 2017). Suddenlink driving improved customer trends YoY again with Optimum trends reflecting normal seasonality and timing of recent rate event
- Pay TV RGU quarterly net losses of -28k in Q3 2018 were better than the prior year (-33k in Q3 2017) due to another significant improvement in Suddenlink’s performance (-7k losses in Q3 2018 vs. -14k in Q3 2017)
- Residential broadband RGU quarterly net additions of +14k in line with prior year (vs. +16k in Q3 2017)
- Residential ARPU per unique customer increased 2.3% YoY to $143.0 in Q3 2018 following recent rate event, supporting an acceleration in Residential revenue growth to +2.4% YoY
- Business Services revenue growth of +6.0% YoY in Q3 2018 boosted by strength in Enterprise & Carrier segment growing +7.4% YoY and SMB growth of +5.3% YoY
- Advertising revenue growth of 37.8% YoY in Q3 2018 supported by the growth of new local and national multi-screen advertising solutions provided by a4,, as well as NY Interconnect delivering strong growth based on political and enlarged structure
- Approximately 80% of Residential broadband gross additions are now taking download speeds of 200Mbps or higher at the end of Q3 with an average data usage of over 240GB per month
- Initial rollout of Altice One is now complete and available to more than 80% of the Altice USA footprint with recent expansion across Suddenlink footprint. Altice USA has reached over 200k unique Altice One customers (>4% of total customers), adding approximately 100k Altice One customers per quarter on a run-rate basis as of the end of Q3 2018
Dexter Goei, Altice USA Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are extremely pleased to present Altice USA’s best financial performance yet, including improved subscriber trends, accelerated revenue growth, highest ever margin and material growth in free cash flow. We are delivering on our differentiated investment thesis anchored in infrastructure-based investment to future-proof our business, to enhance the customer experience and services offered, and to reduce costs over the long-term. This is demonstrated by having just completed the initial launch of the Altice One entertainment platform, launching fiber (FTTH) broadband services and progressing very quickly with preparations for the launch of Altice Mobile in 2019.”
