Altice launches One box for US market

Altice’s US arm has launched its new advanced set-top, the Altice One.

The new box, based on the design created by Altice for the European market and deployed in France, includes a new UI and integrated access to live TV, video-on-demand, apps such as YouTube and Pandora, cloud DVR recordings and WiFi connectivity. It also provides content navigation via a voice-activated remote control.

Altice said that the box, which has been in customer trials, will be available in select areas of Long Island first, beginning next

week, and will roll out across the Altice USA footprint in the coming months.

After launching advanced boxes in France, Israel, Portugal and the Dominican Republic, Altice said that the Altice One was its most advanced platform to date. Other features of the 4K device include restar and cloud-DVR functionality and the Altice One App, a new app that enables users to watch live TV, VoD and recorded content from their DVR on mobile devices.

“We live in a world where content and technology are converging at a fast pace, and Altice One provides the experience, entertainment and connectivity that consumers are looking for today. Altice One is just the beginning of a new, better and simple experience for Altice’s Optimum and Suddenlink customers as we look to become the connected home provider of choice now and into the future. Less than two years after acquiring Cablevision and Suddenlink, we’re thrilled to bring this new service to market for our customers and reinforce our ongoing commitment to continuous innovation in the US,” said Altice USA chairman and CEO Dexter Goei.

The launch came as Altice posted its Q3 results, with strong growth in the US market being largely offset by revenue declines in France and particularly Portugal.

Altice saw overall revenue growth of 0.3% to €5.755 billion, boosted by 3.2% growth from Altice USA to €1.97 billion and a strong showing in Israel. Altice France saw revenues slip by 1.3% to €2.757 billion, while Altice Portugal saw a decline of 3.1% to €566 million due to “mismanagement of rate events”.

Altice Group adjusted EBITDA grew by 4.2% on a constant currency basis to €2.358 billion, driven by 18.9% growth in the US.

“Our priority is execution on our clear long-term strategy: to be the number one operator for the quality of our wholly-owned telecoms infrastructure and the number one convergence player, providing the best customer experience with best-in-class financial performance. Revenue growth and margin expansion for Altice Group are currently being driven by the strong performance of Altice USA. The launch of Altice One is just the beginning of a new, better and simple experience for our customers as we look to become the connected home provider of choice. And as we invest more in our fibre project and digitalisation we will continue to improve service metrics, further reduce churn and see additional efficiency savings,” said Altice CEO Michel Combes.

“In Europe, we are intensifying the operational focus to improve customer experience and return France and Portugal to growth. To support the turnaround here we are expanding our fibre FTTH coverage at an accelerated pace as well as continuing to invest in improving our mobile network quality and providing differentiated content bundles. Lastly, we are also quickly expanding into the media and advertising space which are our fastest growing businesses in the Group today.”