DOOM FOR THE CABLE INDUSTRY?
DOOM FOR THE CABLE INDUSTRY?
Is the cable TV industry facing doom? Some analysts seem to think so.
Hub Entertainment Research says the percentage of U.S. households subscribing to streaming video services is skyrocketing. The percentage subscribing to more than one of the three largest streaming services has risen from 25% to 38% just in the last year. The three largest streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) services are Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.
Last week, Parks Associates released a similar study indicated that 60% of U.S. Households subscribed to at least one of the major streaming services.
The pay TV industry is believed to have lost more than a million customers in the second quarter of 2017, though reliable figures are hard to find. This seems to support the belief that SVOD services are eroding the cable TV customer base.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…
Some cable and satellite TV systems have to decided to join the SVOD trend rather than merely fight it. They have launched their own SVOD platforms, partially cannibalizing their own core business models. Comcast, the largest cable system operator in the U.S., incorporates popular SVOD services into user interfaces on its set-top boxes. AT&T and Dish Network offer multi-channel SVOD platforms- previously unavailable from anyone- with DirecTV Now and Sling TV.
While the long-term trends seem to spell doom for the conventional cable TV model, most cable systems are unlikely to go bankrupt. The top cable system operators added more than a million broadband subscribers in 2016, with increased demand for SVOD services fuelling greater demand for high-speed internet.
Multi-channel SVOD
DirecTV Now and Sling TV have taken the SVOD model a step further than Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon have. DirecTV Now offers about sixty channels for $35.00 per month. Sling TV offers more than thirty channels with its core package for just $20.00 per month. Both offer local broadcast stations in select markets.
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