D.C. Memo: Cogeco's Breezeline Expects to Grow U.S. Broadband Subscribers Starting in a Few Quarters
Cogeco executives voiced confidence in a sustained upward subscriber trend after slashing broadband sub losses in the most recent quarter.
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Growth: Brace yourself, Wall Street, for a new narrative coming from a cable ISP. Breezeline parent Cogeco in Montreal predicted Thursday the company would start to grow broadband subscribers in the “medium term.” CEO Frédéric Perron told financial analysts that he defined medium term as “a handful of quarters” based on trends he’s seeing now. Comcast, Charter, Optimum (formerly Altice USA) and Cable One are expected to show sub losses in 2026 and have been hit with stock downgrades as a result. Perron expected to see growth at some point in Breezeline’s Ohio markets where the company has simplified its pricing structure and adjusted sales channels to blunt subscriber losses to fiber and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) that have bedeviled cable ISPs for several years. “We have enough quantified measures in place to believe that that will be the case, and turning positive in totality in the U.S. on [High Speed Internet] subs on a repeatable basis is now something we believe is realistic and is our goal in the medium term,” Perron said. (More after paywall.)
