Monty Solomon posted:
https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/20200123/column-cord-cutting-isnt-bad-news-for-some-cable-giants
Which says about Comcast,
"Although Comcast may be best known (or hated) by consumers for its cable-TV
service, that's actually its least relevant business. Internet users at Comcast
have outnumbered video subscribers since at least 2015, and Comcast management
has done a good job of shifting attention to the growth coming from broadband.
In unveiling its Peacock app last week, Comcast also gave investors confidence
that it's taking a different tack in streaming than its rivals, choosing to go
the **free, ad-supported route**, which will help Peacock garner eyeballs and
not have to compete on price like the others are."
Who would have thunk that Comcast, among all of them, would have been the one
to finally break out of the antiquated MVPD mindset? Focus on broadband,
neutral broadband, and focus on business models that have been proven to work,
on the Internet medium.
"AT&T is another story. The wireless carrier is carrying a boatload of debt
from its 2018 acquisition of Time Warner, a deal that tied AT&T's fortunes to
the more volatile and uncertain future of pay TV. Its DirecTV/Entertainment
Group - about 25% of total company revenue - has lost customers more rapidly
than the rest of the industry on account of price hikes aimed at lifting profit
and reducing debt."
DBS, and the MVPD business model, have been overtaken by events. But this was
in the tea leaves for so many years. All the excuses, like, things will change
after the recession is over, were mostly examples of "self-soothing." However,
IMO, no reason why AT&T can't embrace the new models, create their own content
portals, available to all (ISP-agnostic), mix FOTI with subscription packages
perhaps, since they have this wealth of content.
In my opinion, the networks are losing out, by playing they coy little games of
blocking many of their past episodes, to people without old-fashioned cable
subscriptions. Here's the way to think of it:
There is lots and lots of stuff on the Internet, for people to watch. The more
the networks play "hard to get," the fewer eyeballs will view their content.
It's really difficult to force people to subscribe to anything, once they have
that broadband connection. So, attract people, don't push them away. Grab that
ad revenue. It's fueling just about everything on the Internet.
Bert
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