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K.C. NEEL
Cable and satellite providers continued to post respectable revenue gains last year thanks in large part to the rollout of new services, according to the Veronis Suhler Media Merchant Bank's Communications Industry Report being released this week.
Assets at 47 publicly reporting cable and satellite TV companies, which include 31 providers and 16 networks, nearly doubled last year to $297.2 billion from $152 billion in 1998, the study found. The increase reflected an expansion of investment in both network programming and delivery systems.
The largest segment of the group - 21 MSOs - saw their revenues soar to $27.9 billion due to increases in household access spending and advertising. The remaining providers - five DBS firms and five wireless service companies - saw revenue increases to $5.9 billion and $88.9 million, respectively, last year.
Time Warner led all the companies in both the provider and network categories. Still, the company's cable system revenues rose less than 1% to $5.4 billion. AT&T Broadband revenue increases were higher at almost 7%, but its total revenues were less than Time Warner's at $4.9 billion.
Cablevision Systems rounded out the top three MSO revenue producers, enjoying a 21% jump in revenue to $3.9 billion in 1999.
With $6.1 billion in 1999 revenues, Time Warner accounted for 55% of the segment's total network revenues. Viacom generated $3 billion in network revenues, giving it a 27% market share of the segment. Ascent Entertainment and LodgeNet Entertainment reached combined revenues of $456.7 million, a 7% increase from the previous year.
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