HomeWell that was a quiet week, one of the quietest I can remember. I don’t know if it’s the post Valentine’s blues or what, but there was hardly any news stories to write about, or at least none that were interesting/original enough. It might be just one of those weeks though …
So with barely anything to talk about, this WNR should be a rather quick one, which isn’t altogether a bad thing from time to time.
Cable is still extremely popular, but OTT services like Netflix will be a threat in the future
So there was really only one story, and I didn’t really think it was that good of a story to write about either: that more and more people are skipping pay TV bundles the age of Netflix and other “Over The Top” services.
And things are going to get worse for cable companies once HBO’s OTT product is released, sometime this year (HBO, or specifically, Game of Thrones may be the only thing making some people still hold on to their subscriptions).
But with mergers and acquisitions, the line between ISP, pay TV provider and content producer is blurring all the time. Content producers may be enjoying the boom times with SVOD licensing, but it’s coming at the expense of their pay TV business probably, and their ISP division may miss out on the dividends of the switch to digital unless they get more deals like the Comcast/Netflix one. Although one could argue that with Internet services being more and more of an utility, should the utility provider profit from the usage of the utility above and beyond the service charge? Analogy time: should electricity providers profit not only from the electricity bill, but also revenue derived from businesses that use large amount of electricity?
It’s all about trying to still make money in changing times, but as with all changes, some will win (eg. Netflix), and some will lose (pay TV companies), while others probably should, by common sense and reason, miss out (ISPs).
Something interesting to think about. The only thing of interest to think about actually, as that was all I could find for the week. Hopefully the next week will be more interesting. Until then …
