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| reply to k1ll3rdr4g0n
Re: The basic flaw... said by k1ll3rdr4g0n:To simply say that if cable companies went to pay per channel pricing that they wouldn't make enough money is a fallacy. Lets say that if a customer wanted the scifi channel, and they pay lets say $5/month. Fine, the cable company wouldn't be able to make a profit on that because the cost of sending out a tech to hook it up with the fear that he may disconnect at any moment. HOWEVER, you are missing the bigger picture. Shall we step back to reality for a moment? I just went over to the Comcast investor relations web sit and pulled the following details out of their 2009 annual report:Total Analog & Digital Video Subscribers was just shy of 42M, which is a 1M increase over the 2008 number. Their revenue went up almost 4% as well, so subscribers are not trading down to cheaper packages.
So this idea that Comcast and the other cable companies are bleeding subscribers is not supported by reality.
I didn't take the time to compute the actual ARPU numbers, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it takes more than 16 $5/month subscribers to replace one $80/month subscriber. Given that pretty much everyone who wants cable has cable, there isn't a huge pool of starving students sitting around waiting for $5 pricing. | |
| said by travelguy:said by k1ll3rdr4g0n:To simply say that if cable companies went to pay per channel pricing that they wouldn't make enough money is a fallacy. Lets say that if a customer wanted the scifi channel, and they pay lets say $5/month. Fine, the cable company wouldn't be able to make a profit on that because the cost of sending out a tech to hook it up with the fear that he may disconnect at any moment. HOWEVER, you are missing the bigger picture. Shall we step back to reality for a moment? I just went over to the Comcast investor relations web sit and pulled the following details out of their 2009 annual report:Total Analog & Digital Video Subscribers was just shy of 42M, which is a 1M increase over the 2008 number. Their revenue went up almost 4% as well, so subscribers are not trading down to cheaper packages. So this idea that Comcast and the other cable companies are bleeding subscribers is not supported by reality. I didn't take the time to compute the actual ARPU numbers, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it takes more than 16 $5/month subscribers to replace one $80/month subscriber. Given that pretty much everyone who wants cable has cable, there isn't a huge pool of starving students sitting around waiting for $5 pricing. Are you saying this story is false then?
»Cable TV Losing 1 Million Customers A Year
And in reality, you can spin the number of customers however you want, what you should be interested in is the number of PAYING customers. I know someone who rented a room at a house, subscribed to Comcast, moved out without letting Comcast know, and Comcast never shut off the service. Not saying it was right to not let Comcast know, but still, I'm sure if it happened once I am sure it has happened many times which the numbers the company puts out may not be as reliable as an independent firm (as the independent firm is not biased). Do you really think Comcast would put that they are losing customers on their public website? | |
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| reply to travelguy
said by travelguy:Shall we step back to reality for a moment? I just went over to the Comcast investor relations web sit and pulled the following details out of their 2009 annual report:Total Analog & Digital Video Subscribers was just shy of 42M, which is a 1M increase over the 2008 number. Their revenue went up almost 4% as well, so subscribers are not trading down to cheaper packages. The problem is, there is *no* cheaper plan.
Analog TV, before Comcast forced the switch to SDV (with box rental fees) was $70/month + taxes!
Before, it used to be $35 a month (probably 10 years ago).
Then we switched to U-Verse.
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