Comments on: Is Pay TV Making a Comeback?

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 15:07:30 +0000

Add me to the 4Q AT&T subscribers, I dumped Comcast because it was too expensive. My ISP speed is slower but I can still stream movies and save a ton of money.

The numbers could be an indicator that the economy is recovering and foreclosures have bottomed out(you don’t need cable if you don’t have a home).

By: Carl Davies

Carl Davies — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:12:11 +0000

Even if those numbers hold, I doubt cable providers will be cracking the champagne; they can see the market shifting, and it’s not at all coincidental that residential subscriber counts may at least hold steady for the providers who’ve worked hardest to meet the consumer demands for speed and bundling. (Disclosure: I work in this industry.) What that effort depends on is something consumers rarely notice unless it’s not up to snuff — back office architecture that supports bundling, convergent billing, and tiered rates efficiently enough to turn a profit without spiking prices. And a lot of cable companies just haven’t made that leap.

Unfortunately, that’s going to be a double shot in the foot going forward, because the same BSS upgrades that would keep pace with consumer innovation would also make cable competitive in the enterprise market that telcos have thus far dominated. As competition heats up — in both growing and tightening markets — now is not the time to let infrastructures stagnate. http://bit.ly/fku3wJ

By: Ryan Lawler

Ryan Lawler — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:56:14 +0000

I’m not sure that the multiplatform, quad-play type bundles are what’s causing people to jump to AT&T or Verizon, but bundling is a really sticky way of keeping them there. The more likely answer is that users are warming up to increased competition, particularly where fiber and high-speed broadband are involved. When I switched from Time Warner Cable to Verizon FiOS a few years ago, I did so because the broadband speeds were about twice as fast as cable.

By: Vamshi Sriperumbudur

Vamshi Sriperumbudur — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:06:48 +0000

Good to see some real numbers.

It seems ATT and Verizon aren’t doing too bad.. Ryan you think this is partly due to their multi-platform (Mobile being one) presence?

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:27:05 +0000

Interesting findings. It’s true, I only watch tv for sports nowadays.

By: Ryan Lawler

Ryan Lawler — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:27:09 +0000

I was actually thinking of quoting LL Cool J myself, but that’s besides the point.

Let’s be clear: I still believe that the loss of subscribers in Q2 and Q3, while small, are part of a secular and not a cyclical trend. I’d be willing to bet that we’ll see declines — albeit small declines — in MVPD subscribers for FY2011.

And as for the five steps to cutting the cord: frankly, it’s easier than it’s ever been to access premium content online. Millions of users already have access to online services through connected TVs, and we’ll see even more come online this year. At that point, it’s just a matter of making a call to your cable company to cancel.

By: Um, OK

Um, OK — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:23:30 +0000

Or consider another theory proposed earlier this week by my conspirator “Someguy”…

http://gigaom.com/video/5-steps-to-cutting-the-cord-a-guide-to-canceling-cable/#comment-598296

“All you have to do here is look at the need to have instructions (5 steps to cord cutting) or the use of a third party (GoodbyePayTV) to realize how far this needs to go before cord cutting is more than a temporary economic reaction or a tech hobby.” The numbers shown above also look like people are reallocating themselves to satellite/fiber/IPTV (ie providers who are actually innovating).

The statement “Is pay TV making a comeback” is ludicrous linkbait: cable saw its first subscriber dip in history (which wasn’t much of a drop to begin with) and you’re calling it a comeback? To paraphrase LL Cool J, don’t call it a comeback, they’ve been here for years…