3rd Quarter Earnings Highlights for Media
Cox Communications, Inc. Third Quarter 2003 Earnings Highlights for Media
Cox reported revenue growth of 15% for the third quarter of 2003 and operating cash flow growth of 20% over the same period 2002.
Cox increased guidance for advanced service RGUs to reach between 1.1 million to 1.2 million and operating cash flow guidance to grow 17 to 18% for the full year 2003.
Cox growth for basic video subscribers was 0.7% with its total basic subscriber base at 6.3 million. Achieved Cox Digital Cable net additions of 121,744 customers, ending the quarter with just under 2.1 million digital cable customers. Cox Digital Cable is now available to 98% of the homes in Cox's service areas with penetration of its basic video customer base exceeding 33%.
Cox added 169,290 Cox High Speed Internet customers, a record net add quarter and a 51% increase over the 2nd quarter of 2003. Cox ended the quarter with 1.8 total million high-speed Internet customers. Total company penetration of Cox high-speed Internet is 18% of ready homes passed.
Cox added 73,019 Cox Digital Telephone customers, ending the quarter with 0.9 million telephone customers, representing year-over-year growth of 40%. Penetration of telephony ready homes rose to 19.3% at the end of the quarter. Cox will launch its 12th phone market, Roanoke, Virginia, by the end of the year utilizing voice over IP rather than circuit switched technology.
Cox ended the quarter with 2 million bundled customers with penetration to basic customers at 33% for the quarter.
Cox high-definition television service is available to approximately 62% of Cox's homes passed with the service expanding to approximately 85% of homes passed by year end.
Cox Business Services recently celebrated its 100,000th customer location subscribing to voice or data services. The division generated 26% growth in commercial revenues.
Over 928,000 Cox customers are registered users of cox.com for online transactions and account maintenance. Cox.com had a 76% growth in registered customers this quarter.
