AT&T’s U-verse television service had record growth in the fourth quarter as the largest U.S. telephone company more than doubled the availability of its fiber-optic TV product last year. Verizon Communications yesterday also reported accelerated growth for its FiOS TV service.
U-verse, which was available in 17 million homes at the end of the year and is shooting for 30 million homes by the end of 2010, added 264,000 new subscribers during the quarter, up from 232,000 during the third quarter, AT&T said in a statement today. With more than 1 million customers, U-verse’s customer base is about half of FiOS’ 1.9 million.
U-verse is the second-biggest brand in a fiber-optic TV industry that is forecast to pull customers from both cable and satellite companies during the next few years. Between now and 2013, the number of U.S. cable subscribers will be little changed, at about 64 million, while the satellite subscriber base will expand about 8% to 33.4 million, consultant SNL Kagan said in September. However, the number of subscribers to telephone company-provided video will jump fivefold to more than 11 million by 2013, SNL Kagan said.
Verizon said its FiOS service added 303,000 customers during the fourth quarter, up from an addition of 233,000 in the third quarter, and is available to more than 9 million customers.
FiOS, started in September 2005, had a nine-month head-start on U-verse, although the services don’t directly compete because of AT&T’s and Verizon’s regional exclusivity. Earlier this month, AT&T said U-verse included more than 85 channels available in high definition for all of its markets, compared to about 100 for FiOS.