Google Fiber’s tiny pay-TV subscriber numbers may explain why service is reportedly scaling back buildout

Delivering some hard subscriber data to indicate why Google Fiber is reportedly considering a pause, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said that the service had only 68,715 video subscribers at the end of June. “For those keeping score at home, that’s a little less than seven one hundredths of 1 percent of the US video market,” Moffett said.

The numbers come via a filing with the US Copyright Office – necessary for maintenance of a compulsory license for broadcast signals. With Google Fiber eschewing the release of customer metrics, the tiny market share in pay-TV services hints at the diminutive size of the overall business, and explains why the division has laid off half its staff and has stopped deploying its lines in new markets. Using a conservative estimate that only around 15 percent of Google Fiber subscribers also take video, Moffett estimated that the service would have had 453,000 broadband customers as of the end of June, representing less than one half of 1 percent of total US ISP customers.