Fios pay TV loses 60K subs in Q4, Verizon keeps video influence via streaming promos

Verizon on Friday reported the loss of 60,000 more Fios Video subscribers in the fourth quarter, roughly flat with the 62,000 pay TV customers it lost in the same October - December period of 2023.

Verizon exited 2024 with just 2.68 million remaining Fios pay TV subscribers, down around 9% from the 2.95 it ended 2023 with.

However, the fading of its once powerful linear pay TV platform belies the resurgent influence in the streaming video business of a wireless giant that added more than 1 million postpaid mobile and home broadband subscribers in the fourth quarter. Indeed, Verizon remains one of the most aggressive bundlers of streaming services with its wireless and home broadband offerings. So when it adds a lot of customers in a quarter, as it did in Q4, it reasons that also stands to lift uptake of bundling partners including Netflix, Max and Disney+, among others.

For example, Verizon’s post-paid phone additions surged nearly 27% to 578,000 in the fourth quarter. Notably, on the wireless side for Verizon, subscribers to the “Unlimited Ultimate” tier are offered a bundle of the ad-supported tiers of Netflix, Max, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, all for $20 a month, $19 cheaper versus paying for these streaming services individually.

Meanwhile, Verizon also reported 408,000 total broadband net additions in Q4 across product lines including Fios fiber home internet and fixed wireless access. The company’s home broadband customer base ended up 15% YoY to 12.3 million subscribers.

The ad-supported iterations of Netflix ($7.99 a month after a just-announced price increase) and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max ($9.99 a month) are offered for free for one year to Verizon Home Internet customers. That includes subscribers to Verizon’s surging fixed wireless access business, which uses fixed 4G LTE and 5G cellular technology to deliver internet to homes and businesses. Verizon reported 373,000 new FWA customers in the fourth quarter, bringing its base to 4.6 million FWA customers. The company expects to have between 8 million - 9 million FWA customers by 2028.

And through its +play subscription services marketplace, which launched in 2022 and is available across mobile and home-internet product lines, Verizon is still offering a free year of Netflix Premium, now priced at a lofty $24.99 a month, to any customer who pays for another subscription via the platform.

Amid a Q4 and full-2024 earnings report in which Verizon’s top executives mainly discussed things like the integration of AI into its service portfolio, integration of subscription streaming didn’t come up much on Friday’s analyst call.

But packaging subscription and streaming services so aggressively doesn’t seem to be hurting Verizon’s bottom line. The company reported a 1.6% YoY revenue uptick to $35.7 billion, up over analyst consensus estimates of $35.32 billion.