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SpaethCo
Digital Plumber
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Re: STB? - Who Cares

said by 29393955:

Why does anyone have any interest in STB's? The reality is, just like landline phones, cable TV is a 'dead service walking'... They just haven't admitted it yet.

... just like these graphs clearly show the decline of HDTVs in households.. er.. wait.



pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
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pnh102

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Non sequitur. Don't forget that HDTVs have been the only thing you could buy for quite some time now. It only stands to reason that more households would have them and that their penetration would increase over time, if only because people are replacing older tvs with new ones.

I'm more interested in the total number of pay tv subscribers over time. Methinks it has been flat, as the only way one provider can get new customers is to poach them from another provider. Based on previous reports here, I don't see people who cut the cord completely on pay tv as a huge factor, yet.

Assuming the number of total subscribers is flat and has been over time, then I would say the pay tv industry might want to start worrying.
jjeffeory
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What does HDTV have to do with cable tv?

SpaethCo
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said by pnh102:

I'm more interested in the total number of pay tv subscribers over time. Methinks it has been flat, as the only way one provider can get new customers is to poach them from another provider.

The rate of growth is slowing, but it's definitely not flat.



Source: »blog.telegeography.com/p ··· 6a45c650

These are global stats.
SpaethCo

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said by jjeffeory:

What does HDTV have to do with cable tv?

Remember how most people weren't willing to switch to AT&T for wireless service before they got the iPhone?

The right device can make the most inferior service somehow become palatable.

pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
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I can see how non-US markets being crucial for US-based content providers... but it seems the US market itself is rather flat.

»news.investors.com/artic ··· loss.htm

Pay TV service, at least in the US, has nowhere to go but down.

SpaethCo
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1 edit

SpaethCo

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said by pnh102:

I can see how non-US markets being crucial for US-based content providers... but it seems the US market itself is rather flat.

»news.investors.com/artic ··· loss.htm

Pay TV service, at least in the US, has nowhere to go but down.

Q2 numbers have been the worst in the cycle for the last few years.

See:



Also, 2012 Q1 posted a 494,000 net subscriber increase before the 348,000 loss in Q2 -- so it's still net positive on the year.


Source: »paidcontent.org/2012/05/ ··· d-in-q1/

It's only been relatively flat the last couple years, and that's largely a reflection of the economy.

Still, when you have 100 million subscribers in the US paying for TV, it's pretty easy to see why you'd want to make a device that would appeal to some of them.

Note that the major area of growth is TelcoTV, and Verizon is still using QAM delivery for TV, hence a "cable box" would be usable for them as well.

pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
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I'm certainly not disputing that the current market for pay TV in the US is huge, it definitely is. I am just not seeing it as a growing industry as it used to be say, 10 or 20 years ago.

But given the price increases and the continuing problems with the economy, I just don't see these numbers increasing as a whole.
ncbill
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join:2007-01-23
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I still pay for TV, but oly per-episode for the 'cable' shows I want, commercial-free, via Amazon Video.

Broadcast channels all recorded over-the-air via a TivoHD.