business model

Account sharing is a $7 billion problem for online video platforms, but only if they want it to be

1 May 2020 by Steve Blum
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Elmer fudd

Californians who are fortunate enough to have fast, reliable broadband service can occupy their locked down, sheltered-in-place hours by watching a seemingly infinite selection of online video content. Some of it is free, but the good stuff usually requires a subscription to one of the many over-the-top streaming platforms. For most of those, all you need is a user name and password to log in and start watching.

Which creates a problem. It’s easy to loan your account info to family and friends, and hard to say no.… More

Unless it's AT&T or Verizon, telco capital investment is at life support levels

13 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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As with subscriber numbers, there’s a big gap between the two biggest telcos in the U.S. – AT&T and Verizon – and the rest of the field when it comes to capital spending. Both companies are planning multi-billion dollar investments in their networks in 2018, according to a story by Sean Buckley in FierceTelecom, with AT&T planning to spend $25 billion on capital upgrades in 2018, while Verizon is looking at the $17 billion to $18 billion range.… More

Open access fiber drives down consumer broadband prices in New Zealand

21 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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A national project to build fiber-to-the-premise infrastructure and offer it to any Internet service provider on a wholesale basis began in New Zealand in 2011, with an initial goal of reaching 75% of Kiwi homes and businesses. According to a study done by International Data Corporation, a research firm, and sponsored by Spark, the biggest NZ reseller of FTTP service, the build out has reached about 65% of NZ premises, and the goal is now to reach 87% by 2022.… More

Cable's broadband monopoly profile sharpens with 2017 results

16 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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Share of U.S. broadband households, as of 31 December 2017. Source: Leichtman Research Group.

Comcast and Charter own half of U.S. residential broadband subscribers, and their share of the market – if you want to call it that – is growing. That’s one of the conclusions gleaned from a tabulation of year-end 2017 financial reports by Leichtman Research Group. As with a similar count by FierceTelecom, the numbers show telcos continue to bleed subscribers profusely, while cable – and the overall broadband universe – keep on growing.… More

Cable wins the broadband market fight, telcos lose. Again

14 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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The U.S. cable industry’s broadband subscriber count grew by 1.7% in the last quarter of 2017, while telephone companies continued to lose customers. That’s the top line from a tally by FierceTelecom of 15 of the 16 largest Internet service providers (Wow Cable hasn’t reported yet, although check the link – FierceTelecom will be updating its numbers). It’s a trend that continued throughout 2017.

In total, cable companies added 918,000 Internet subscribers, while the telco loss was a bit more than 7,000 subs – negligible in terms of percentage, but a significantly bad result in a growing market.… More

With end of net neutrality, cable companies can put brakes on subscriber slide

26 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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Fewer than half of U.S. households have traditional cable television subscriptions, according to research done by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). With the end of network neutrality rules, cable companies, AT&T and, to a lesser extent, other telcos will be able to fight this trend more aggressively. Even if they can’t stop or even slow it, they can use their monopoly broadband gatekeeper power to rake in a greater share of subscriber revenue.

Cable TV subscriptions have been trending downward over the five years that PWC has been running this survey.… More

Big telecom gets bigger while the small get teeny tiny, part 2

6 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Size matters in the telecoms business. That’s true when success is measured by broadband subscriber counts, as I explored in yesterday’s post, and it’s true for share prices too. Some companies might be heading for a very hard landing.

It’s the small and mid-sized telephone companies that are in the roughest shape. CenturyLink’s share price is down 41% since this time last year, which is the best of the middle of the pack. Its purchase of Level 3 Communications seems to be slowing its descent.… More

Consumers chase better broadband, ditching small companies and old tech

5 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Cable companies are widening their lead over telcos in the battle for broadband market domination. According to a tabulation by FierceTelecom that tracks the top 15 wireline broadband companies, cable companies picked up a net gain of 2 million broadband subscribers, while telcos lost 430,000 during the first nine months of 2017.

One clear trend: whether it’s the cable or telephone side of the ledger, the big are getting bigger, and the small are struggling.

Looking just at the third quarter – July through September – Charter Communications was the cable company gaining the most, adding 249,000 net new broadband subs, but Comcast wasn’t far behind, with a bump of 214,000 subs.… More

Big cable, telcos bleed TV subs, but monopoly broadband pricing could be the cure

20 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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It’s been a bad year for the traditional television subscription business. An analysis by Daniel Frankel in Fierce Cable shows that it’s not quite as awful as stock analysts expected, but it’s close and awful enough…

As earnings season has approached in each quarter of 2017, analysts have predicted the watershed moment where linear pay TV losses surpass 1 million customers.

The market came close in the always-volatile second quarter, losing 976,000 subscribers…

The top 10 publicly traded operators, which account for about 95% of the market, reported losses of around 398,000 video customers in the third quarter.

… More

Cord cutters hurt cable but are killing AT&T

22 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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AT&T’s overall television subscriber count is down, despite the strong growth of of its online video service, DirecTv Now. That’s according to a federal securities and exchange commission filing by the company. Even though it signed up 300,000 new online viewers to DirectTv Now in the third quarter of this year, its total video subscription count dropped by 90,000 according to the filing…

The video net losses were driven by heightened competition in traditional pay TV markets and over-the-top services, hurricanes and our stricter credit standards.

… More