Comcast Slows Bleeding with Bribes

[Scott Moritz]

Scott Moritz

05/04/11 - 10:20 AM EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Comcast (CMCSA) bucked the cord-cutting trend as fewer-than-expected video customers canceled cable service last quarter.

The Philly cable giant beat first-quarter earnings targets and, even more importantly, lost only 39,000 video customers, a rate that is less than half the cancellation pace of a year-ago. For the past year, Comcast has lost 3%, or 714,000 subscribers, as people flee pay TV for Internet video services.

Comcast is curbing cord cutters

On the earnings conference call Wednesday, analysts asked Comcast executives how they were able to slow the churn of video customer departures. Cable chief Neil Smit pointed to a few factors like better products and customer service, but above all, highlighted a stronger retention push.

"What drove total numbers was retention more than gross adds," he said.

The story: http://goo.gl/DTWeO