[opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2016 20:56:18 -0400
On Apr 24, 2016, at 8:12 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Show me where it says that, Craig. Those are your words.
First the headline of the article:
Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video
Then this:
Our surveys show that while traditional TV services continue to lose
customers, cord cutters makes up a trickle of users rather than a torrent.
Despite the widespread availability of both paid and free
advertising-supported streaming services, more than two-thirds of us—68
percent—still subscribe to a cable TV or similar pay TV service. Perhaps more
surprising is that nearly three-fourths of cable subscribers deciding to keep
cable say they won’t drop it because they’re relatively happy with their
provider.
Bert continues:
Internet portals cannot do that. Subscribing to Netflix cannot keep anyone
from also subscribing to Amazon or anything else.
FOTFL
Subscription Internet portals are no different than MVPD services. They rely on
the fact that you value some portion of the content they offer enough to pay
the monthly/annual subscription fee.
MVPD services cannot keep anyone from subscribing to Netflix or Amazon or
anything else. More than two thirds of U.S. Households subscribe to a MVPD AND
a SVOD service.
The decision rests solely on the customer. Your local monopoly MVPD service
cannot keep you from subscribing to the FIVE other MVPD services available in
your neighborhood. You can subscribe to Cox Cable, Verizon FIOS, Dish DSL/Dish
Sling, AT&T DirecTV, or Sony Play Station Vue.
The OTT sites are NOT tied to the ISP exclusively, they are NOT priced with
the expectation that a household would loyally subscribe to one and only one,
and the fact that their offerings differ markedly, between OTT sites, proves
just how different the OTT model is.
More rubbish.
They cannot price a direct service to stop the decline in viewership.
You're just repeating the same tired old, simplistic mantra. When your
customer base is declining, there's nothing lucrative about that.
The decline is minimal compared to the huge number of MVPD subscribers who pay
$6/mo for ESPN, almost half of which rarely watch, and certainly would not pay
for a direct subscription.
You clearly do not have a clue about economics or business models.
You have to offer YOUR channel at a more attractive price, and you have to
forego the welfare checks your customers were paying out to other channels in
"the bundle." The simple fact is, many people are ready to drop ESPN
precisely because, in your "the bundle," they no longer see the value
proposition making sense.
As you say...prove it.
ESPN is king of the mountain with respect to subscriber fees from the MVPD
services.
Please provide a viable analysis that explains how going direct will provide
the same level of subscriber fee revenues that ESPN currently enjoys. The
analysis should include the price of the direct service and the number of
projected subscribers over the first five years. It should also include the
number of homes that will cut the cord if the direct service is NOT available,
and the projected loss of subscriber fee revenue that will result.
Craig, this is the same old circular arguing you enjoy. I'll say it again:
you cannot base your analysis on arguments that ONLY MAKE SENSE if ESPN
viewership were still increasing.
It is not a question of whether it is increasing. That is largely dependent on
the number of new TV homes created, which in turn is largely dependent on the
number of new immigrants, both legal and otherwise.
Things peaked around 2010, and are currently about the same level as 2009. This
is closely correlated with the economy, and the lack of real economic growth
since 2009.
They cannot afford to undercut the MVPDs.
They can certainly afford to get back the cord cutters.
How?
At what price?
They can certainly afford to not expect ESPN subscribers to be paying welfare
to channels they don't watch. You really have to get up to date on these
matters, Craig. This is not 40 years ago.
Something between 68% and 85% disagree.
The Sling bundle is proving to be TOO limited,
You have no proof of that, and it's trivially easy to argue the opposite.
Show me the number of subscribers, and the demographics. Then we can have an
intelligent discussion.
The Sling TV bundle may in fact still not appeal, to people who only want
ESPN and perhaps only the TV networks for other sports. Certainly Iger seems
to get this. I don't know why you feel obliged to hype up the continued
existence of inflexible bundles.
I'm not. But Iger is. He has to decide how to move forward, and he would really
appreciate your economic analysis and pricing recommendations!
Internet distribution can support any number of bundling options, as well as
access to just the one "channel." ESPN broke out of your "the bundle" more
than a year ago, is becoming available over other OTT sites with different
bundling formulas, and it looks like it will also become available
stand-alone, like HBO.
When?
How much?
The only change is that ESPN us now available two new Virtual MVPD bundles:
Sling @ $20/mo and Sony for more than $40/mo.
Please provide the number of subscribers to these new bundles, and the
demographics of the subscribers.
This is NOT the old monopolistic walled garden, Craig.
Correct. These are the NEW monopolistic walled gardens.
Regards
Craig
Other related posts:
- » [opendtv] Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News - Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: Cord Cutters Are Few, But Tons of Us Are Streaming Video | Fox News- Craig Birkmaier