The cable guys have now become the internet guys

by
in internet on (#3WY)
story imageIt's official, folks: cable companies now have more subscribers for broadband internet than they have for video. Not by much, but still ... it's a landmark, and an important one. Ever wonder why the broadband companies are fighting so hard to do away with net neutrality? It's because they see the same writing on the wall that you do: the days of cable video are over, and they're desperate to turn the new business into their old business.
The top cable guys now have 49,915,000 Internet subscribers, compared to 49,910,000 TV subscribers. And to be sure, most cable customers are getting both services. Still, this is directionally important. The future for the pay TV guys isn't selling you pay TV - it's selling you access to data pipes, and pay TV will be one of the things you use those pipes for. ... Some smart people suggest that the cable guys would not be unhappy if most of their business moved over to broadband instead of video, since there are much better margins - and almost no competition - for broadband.
Deadline.com is reporting the same thing, with some added information:
Cord cutting? Not entirely. Many likely switched to AT&T's U-verse or Verizon FiOS, which together added 290,000 video customers. ... Adjusting for household growth it appears that cord cutting slowed to an annualized rate of less than 400K homes, a meaningful deceleration and well below the peak (but still modest) rates of cord cutting seen in 2012. ... Cable companies had 59% of the wired broadband market. The bottom line: The 'dying dinosaur' Pay TV industry is growing revenue more than twice as fast as the wireless industry.
Reply 5 comments

Serendipity (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-08-17 19:33 (#3XV)

It's the one thing the various "cord cutting" alternatives haven't seriously addressed, at all. The ability to veg out and let the streams wash over you, whether a series of Food shows, or endless cartoons, or crime shows out the wazoo, or ancient 60s sitcoms.

Cord cutting still takes work, from the initial setup on through the day to day (and hour to hour) selection of what the hell am I going to download and what the hell am I going to watch / stream now. Then toss in multiple providers and being responsible for all your own hardware, and the sheen fades a bit.

I had every intention of finally getting the family off the satellite TV teat, but stuff like XBMC and MythTV still takes work, and in the end you're still picking and choosing what to to watch every damn time. TV Channels are for a nation bred to be cows, and we're still cows. We want to relax a bit after working in the pasture all day (bad analogy I know).

Besides, the newest whole-home DVR setups from the satcos like Da Hoppa and Genie make things disarmingly easy by comparison.

Meanwhile I never even got MythTV set up the way I wanted, let alone order the HD Homerun tuner card(s) and all the gear required for each separate TV setup. I want it to be easier to go DIY. It's still not, as far as I know.

Sorry for the slightly off topic rambling...

Re: Serendipity (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-08-17 19:35 (#3XW)

Oh by the way, Netflix automatically hitting Play against your will for the next episode of the same series in a forced binge watching session doesn't count as serendipity. :)

a swamp of reality tv shows (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-08-17 20:41 (#3XX)

This might have something to do with it: http://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/2drrof/american_cable_channels_have_blended_into_an/

I was just in Miami at a friend's place; he's got DishTV with hundreds and hundreds of channels. And we had one hell of a hard time finding a single thing worth watching. Ridiculous.

Re: a swamp of reality tv shows (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-08-17 21:55 (#3Y7)

But that's what I mean about finding a decent niche channel and leaving it on. That simple pleasure is actively denied by the always-creeping generalization of channels (which is what I assume your link is about without RTFA). Before it turned into the freaking reality TV gameshow network, you could leave Food Network on all day and learn about cooking or simply enjoy it in the background. You can still get away with leaving on cartoon channels and some niche rerun channels.

But yeah ever since MTV decided to hate its own reason for existence, turning every channel to undistinguished crap has been the TV executive's primary mission. So serendipity is harder and harder to come by.

Re: a swamp of reality tv shows (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-08-18 10:21 (#3YR)

When I want something to wash over me in the background, NPR on the radio is usually my first choice in America. Good quality programming, interesting interviews, and good reporting. Also: relatively non-obtrusive.