Category: Pay TV (Cable, Satellite)
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Streaming Video Services See Massive Churn in Race for Dominance
When video streaming services offer free trials, there’s a lot of interest. When the trials run out, however, the customers run away. As Christopher Palmeri reported in Bloomberg Businessweek, two-thirds of these users leave when the free trial runs out. Another 10% of all streamers ditch the service every month.…
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Content Omnivores: Video Consumers Want It All
With the increased attention focused on OTT (Over-the-top) TV and streaming services, there are some interesting trends developing. 65% of US consumers say they stream content at least once a week. Two-thirds say they stream more video online than they watch of broadcast, cable, or satellite, according to Horowitz Research’s…
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Despite What You Hear, TV is still the Dominant Medium
Despite all the talk about cord cutting, streaming, social media, and digital marketing, it’s easy to forget that TV remains the dominant medium. Here are four facts that demonstrate the continued power of television as the dominant medium. People spend more time with TV than computers, smartphone, and tablets combined……
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Vast majority of video viewing still taking place on TV sets
Yes, there’s a fair amount of viewing these days on mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers, but 70% of all viewing is still through the TV set. A survey of OTT consumers conducted for Nevion reports that 70% of those responsing still watch the majkority of programming on TV. …
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DirecTV Now Streaming Service Loses A Quarter-Million Subscribers
The future of TV is supposed to be streaming, right? In its 4th quarter earnings report, AT&T dropped a bombshell. The parent company of DirecTV announced that it had lost 267,000 streaming customers of its DirecTV Now service. The forecast for sub losses was 19,000 according to the Hollywood Reporter. …
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Consumers Are Canceling Video Streaming Services at Significant Rates
You hear a lot about cord cutting and people dropping their cable service, but not so much about people dropping their OTT (over-the-top) video streaming services. Park Associates has now quantified the OTT churn and it’s bigger than you probably think: 18% annually. That’s right. 18% of streaming video service…
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Cable, Satellite cord cutting accelerates while streaming service grow subscribers
As cord cutting in pay-TV (cable + satellite) continues to accelerate, subscribers of premium video streaming services continues to increase. The penetration of cable and satellite subscribers is now at 78%, the lowest it’s been in 15 years. SNL Kagan reports that 32 ad-supported cable networks EACH lost more than…
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New Study: Cord-Cutting is accelerating in 2017
Cord-cutting is growing rapidly. After years of relatively small number of consumers ditching their cable and satellite connections, the number of people opting for going it alone or smaller video bundles has grown dramatically in the last year. According to a Magid Broadcast study of consumers this April (reporter by…
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175 TV stations sell off spectrum, nearly 1,000 will move to new channels
A bunch TV stations got a windfall from the FCC’s spectrum auction. Some got so much they opted to go off the air forever and take the money and run. Altogether, 987 TV stations must change channels. [ FULL LIST AFTER THE JUMP ]
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Internet advertising to surpass TV advertising, but…
For the first time, more dollars are being spent on internet advertising than on traditional television. That news comes from Zenith (a Publicis company) in taking a look at 2017 internet advertising dollars and projections.
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I love my cable / satellite / streaming / internet provider (said nobody ever)
Nobody, it seems, is happy with their cable, satellite, or streaming provider. Overall cost, hardware problems, streaming issues, and quality – take your pick. When you’re paying that much money, you just want to watch something of quality and have it work right without issues. When it doesn’t, people get…
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A huge number of Millennial Men aren’t watching any TV on any device
How big a deal is this cord-cutting thing for TV? It may depend on who you ask. The number of people cutting out cable has slowed, but it’s still a growing number. But when you slice and dice those dropping (cord-cutters) or never subscribing (cord-nevers), this new report shows…
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75 million U.S. homes now have internet connected TV
Nearly three-quarters of broadband-connected homes now have a TV connected to the internet. The adoption of internet-connected TVs has mirrored the adoption of broadband in the US, but has slowed recently as more homes were connected. According to new research from The Diffusion Group (TDG), the penetration of Internet-connected TVs…
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Broadband Only homes rising, 15% get TV without cable or satellite
In 2013, just 9% of US residents did not subscribe to pay-TV (cable or satellite) to get television. By the third quarter of 2016, that number had risen to 15%. That equates to 17 million broadband-only homes, according to TDG (The Diffusion Group) as reported in MediaPost. Park Associates…
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Cord Cutting and Skinny Bundles: More hype than hope?
Cord cutting is real and it’s gaining traction, but not as quickly as predicted. Nielsen’s latest report shows homes that subscribe to pay-TV (cable or satellite) is down 1.7% from last January. That’s hardly a tidal wave of cord cutters. At the same time, the number of TV households actually…
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Bipartisan investigation demands answers on cable TV’s “misleading fees and sales practices”
In a bi-partisan effort, Senators from both parties are calling on Charter Communications (which also acquired Time Warner) and Comcast to stop what they call “misleading placement of fees on customers’ bills, and inadequate advertising disclosure for service promotions.” They’ve asked before and say they’ve never got an answer to…
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It’s not you. Commercial breaks are getting longer
The NFL thinks if it cuts out commercial breaks and down time, it may help with struggling ratings this year. Probably. DVR’s, Hulu, and Netflix have turned a lot of people into binge watchers and it’s made it tougher to go from that experience to sitting through commercial pods –…
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Cord cutters are cutting cable AND broadband internet at home
First it was cutting landline phones for mobile. Next, cord cutters dropped cable TV and opted for streaming devices. Now, in what Ovum researchers call “triple cord cutting,” we’re seeing people start to trim their broadband connections at home and use cell phones to do their online viewing. “Cord-cutting started…
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Comcast gets caught charging customers for stuff they never ordered and hit with largest FCC fine ever given
Comcast hit with the largest civil penalty ever given to a cable operator about consumer complaints and ordered to put in place a compliance plan “In some complaints, subscribers claimed that they were billed despite specifically declining service or equipment upgrades offered by Comcast. In others, customers claimed that they…
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Customers dumping satellite & cable TV at an ever-growing rate
There’s no denying this cord-cutting thing is real. BTIG Research is the research arm of BTIG brokerage and fund services company which advises investors on key markets. They looked at the top MVPDs – that’s industry jargon for “multi-channel video programming distributor. In other words, what people know as cable…
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Washington Attorney General sues Comcast over 1.8 million violations of Consumer Protection Act
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson says Comcast isn’t playing fair with its customers. In fact, he says Comcast committed more than 1.8 million violations of the state’s Consumer Protection Act, citing improper credit screening practices and charging fees for service calls. In addition, Ferguson says Comcast deceived customers for…
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GfK Study: 25% of homes are without cable or satellite TV
In recent years, it’s been typical to find cable and satellite penetration numbers reaching into the low-to-mid 90% range in most metro areas. That’s changing. According to a study released today from GfK, this cord-cutting thing is real. I know, people have been talking about this for a while, but…
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Subscription, on-demand video services hit important milestone (but Live TV viewing is still King)
You may not have heard the term OTT before. It means “over-the-top” delivery of video programming – through a set-top box or internet-connected TV. But I’ll bet you know some of the products and have even used them. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu are OTT products and the news today…
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How do you watch media in your home?
How many internet-connected devices do you have in your home? Think about that for a minute. Connected devices include phones, tablets, game consoles, smart TV’s, laptops and desktops, or anything else that displays media and connects to the internet: DVD and Blu-Ray players that are Wi-Fi enabled, OTT devices like…
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Senate investigating cable and satellite TV customer service and billing amid horror stories
The US Senate called for an investigative report and will hold hearings on cable and satellite TV customer service and billing practices. The report will be released at the hearings. Execs from Time Warner, Charter, AT&T, Dish Network, and Comcast are expected to testify. They’re likely to get blasted. Horror…
Paul Dughi.com 