Cox Bundles Up

Cox boasts that it ended 2006 with 3.4 million customers

Alan Breznick, Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

January 31, 2007

1 Min Read
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With real winter weather finally hitting most of the U.S., Cox Communications Inc. is definitely taking pleasure in bundling up.

In its own quiet way, Cox, the nation's fourth largest MSO, boasts that it ended 2006 with 3.4 million customers taking at least two of its cable services, up nearly 15 percent from a year earlier. The company says about 60 percent of its 5.4 million basic cable customers now subscribe to at least one other main service, while 60 percent of its new subscribers now take phone service and/or high-speed data service.

Marking the 10th anniversary of the company's launch of its original triple-play offering, Cox President Patrick Esser says bundling has helped reduce customer churn to a record low. He's counting on the introduction of a fourth major service, wireless, to make Cox's bundles even more popular over the next year or two. "There's no question about it -- the bundle is our best offense and defense," he says.

In its year-end summary report released Tuesday, privately owned Cox also brags that it closed 2006 with a record 448,666 non-video customers, up 20 percent from a year earlier. This figure means that non-video customers now account for more than seven percent of the company's 5.9 million-subscriber total.

In addition, Cox ended last year with 3.3 million cable modem subscribers, up 16 percent from the close of 2005, and slightly more than 2 million phone customers, up 21 percent from a year earlier. But note that these are both pro forma growth rates because Cox sold off some cable systems in 2006, reducing its overall size.

— Alan Breznick, Site Editor, Cable Digital News

About the Author

Alan Breznick

Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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