Pay TV Providers Lost 560,000 Subscribers Last Quarter Traditional pay TV providers (telcos, cablecos and satellite) lost a combined 560,000 video subscribers last quarter, according to the latest industry analysts . It's worth noting that's notably better than the 943,000 customers lost the previous quarter, a number padded by the impact of numerous hurricanes. That said, the quarter saw a surge in "virtual" over the top streaming video service subscribers to the tune of 773,000, signaling the slow but steady transition away from bloated, traditional cable bundles, and toward, cheaper, more flexible streaming alternatives.







News Jump Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 22 comments

tommyr

join:2016-02-01 8 recommendations tommyr Member Good! 99% of what's on sucks anyway. Plus they keep raising rates. They are committing slow suicide. I love it! IanR

join:2001-03-22

Fort Mill, SC 8 recommendations IanR Member Hardly surprising Basically the new shows each year on Broadcast TV channels get less and less interesting. Apart from Sports I find myself watching streamed shows 75% of the time.

camper

just visiting this planet

Premium Member

join:2010-03-21

Bethel, CT 1 edit 7 recommendations camper Premium Member Pay TV can't get it right... I'm becoming quite frustrated with my PayTV provider (Comcast). They are unable to allow me to view the channels I pay for.



I recently went up a level to obtain a few channels i want to watch. Comcast provides a list of all the channels i should receive as a part of that new price tier. Yet I see messages that I am not authorized to view some of the channels that are on the list.



So I call Comcast. Tier 1 support was not able to resolve the problem and, after a while, transfers me to advanced support. The advanced support person seemed to be just trying things at random, and asking me, "did that work?" each time he tried something else.



Hardly confidence instilling.



After another long while, when he was still unable to allow me to view the channels I was paying for, he started to upsell me to a higher priced package. At that point I told him to stop, and I hung up.



At this point, I am no longer wondering why customers are fleeing the PayTV industry to the simpler streaming services.



When a company is unable to deliver the products purchased by customers...



I'm beginning to think it may be appropriate for me to start talking with my State Attorney general, since Comcast seems to be unable to resolve the problem of not delivering what I pay for. HiDesert

join:2008-08-17 3 recommendations HiDesert Member Literally only way to force change Content providers will eventually have to cave in on their old business model. It's unfortunate that they refuse to change. Their answer is to always raise rates. They lobby heavily to keep the broken model in place and continue to extort carriages through channel bundling. There is literally no way to force change other then subs dropping in mass. This is the only way they will get the message. Once the rate hikes fail to make up the difference they will know they are up against a losing war. The carriers will be fine since they make money on HSI. But content providers have a real problem. And they keep digging their own graves. I do not feel the least sorry for them.