Cablevision Chief Executive James Dolan is putting on a full-court press when it comes to winning cable customers.
The Long Island-based company, controlled by the Dolan family, is rolling out record cut-rate discounts in a bid to stem subscriber losses and thwart competition from rival Verizon’s FiOS TV service.
Cablevision recently offered a “triple-play” bundle of phone, TV and high-speed Internet service to new customers on Long Island for just $69.95 a month. The US average for such a bill is well over $100 a month.
The offer, which hit households on Jan. 23 and ran for just one week, came with no contract and a locked-in rate for two years. In addition to the steep discount, Cablevision was also giving away a $200 Apple iPod Touch and a free DVR.
Vijay Jayant, senior managing director at ISI Group, said the promotion was “the most aggressive we’ve ever seen.”
Cablevision executives noted that the $69.95 offer was not likely to return any time soon.
Similarly, Cablevision is offering Hoboken , NJ, customers a $79.95 rate. Verizon is currently advertising a package for $89.99, plus a $300 Visa prepaid card.
“It’s an offer that is promotional pricing only for new customers to get them to try our product, not an uncommon practice,” a Cablevision spokesman said.
Cablevision reported disappointing results for the third quarter as it lost 19,000 cable television customers — even though it added broadband and phone customers — while profits plummeted 65 percent.
“Competition between Cablevision and FiOS remains tough, neither of them have yet raised video rates to their customers in 2012 even though the underlying programming costs are increasing in the high single digits,” Jayant said.
Cablevision executives blamed the weak economy for subscriber losses, as well as aggressive pricing competition from their biggest rival, Verizon, which has built out its FiOS cable TV network heavily in the New York area, in particular Cablevision’s turf.
Like other pay-TV outfits, Cablevision is getting squeezed by demands from programming providers to pay higher fees for content.
Cablevision also suffered another setback late last year when it lost its long-time operating chief, Tom Rutledge, a well respected cable veteran credited with pushing advanced services like cable telephony and broadband services.
The company, which had 3.2 million customers at the end of September, will report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 28.