Comcast warns it's going to lose as many as 150,000 video subscribers in the third quarter
Shares of Comcast are down 7% in afternoon trading on Thursday after executive vice president Matt Strauss warned the company will lose between 100,000 and 150,000 video subscribers during its 2017 fiscal third quarter.
Speaking at a conference held by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Strauss said this was the "most competitive quarter in recent memory" and that the destruction of Hurricane Harvey and increased competition in the US would drive the subscriber losses, Bloomberg says. Analysts were expecting the addition of 11,00 subscribers.
The warning from Strauss follows solid second quarter results that came with a hint the company was facing increased competition in its video business. Comcast announced a total video customer net loss of 34,000 subscribers. An estimate from Leichtman Research Group, cited by CNBC, said that up to 64% of all US households subscribe to at least one on-demand service like Amazon Prime, Netflix, or Hulu.
Despite Thursday's plunge, Comcast shares are still up 11.5% in 2017.
