Cable Industry Shifts Wireless Strategy
Posted on August 24, 2011
Historically, the Cable TV industry increased subscriber revenue in two ways. One was simply by raising prices. However, a second far more effective way was to offer incremental services, but to present the best pricing in the form of packaged bundles. Most notably over the past fifteen years Cable companies went into competition with the telephone industry by providing (1) landline telephony and (2) broadband Internet access. Presently, the classic bundle is termed a “triple-play” of telephony, Internet access, and Pay television in a single monthly subscription. A typical fee for “triple-play” is $140 a month.
Download six minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod here
For much of the past decade the Cable industry looked lustfully at cellular telephony as a promising incremental service for bundling. To that end, leading operators invested in Clearwire in hopes of getting a “quadruple-play”. But Clearwire did not have a competitive footprint. Furthermore, its system standardized on WiMax whereas the dominant cellular carriers, Verizon and AT&T, gravitated toward a Fourth Generation standard termed “Long Term Evolution” (LTE). Although Clearwire recently announced it will also switch to LTE, the decision may be too late. Read more…
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Eroding the ISP Duopoly
Posted on November 5, 2010
Earlier this year Cable TV industry executives dismissed cord cutting as an urban myth. Yet domestic Pay TV subscribers declined for the first time ever in the June quarter. Early reports indicate another drop in the September quarter. While presently conceding cord cutting may be a reality some industry observers conclude the trend is not a serious threat. They reason the industry’s dominance as a broadband ISP enables pricing flexibility that can avoid adverse financial impact.
Download audio narration to iPod, iPad, and iPhone here.
Presently most consumers have little choice but to get high speed Internet access from either the Cable operator or the local Telco. The two industries have enjoyed a near duopoly on broadband ISP service for decades. Like Pavlov’s dogs, both shall likely try to meet the challenge of cord cutting with a time-proven strategy of bundled pricing.
For example, in Albany (NY) Time Warner Cable raised its Internet-only monthly rate from $50 to $55. But customers choosing both CATV and Internet service are billed only $57. One stock analyst also argues that the Cable-Telco duopoly would enable both industries to move toward usage-based ISP pricing if Pay TV cord cutting continues. He asserts ISPs may have “no choice” as bandwidth intensive video streaming becomes more popular. Read more…
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Evaluating Apple’s Go-to-Market Analysis
Posted on June 14, 2010
During the past few months Apple twice implied the Digital Living Room of the Future is not a good market for the company. In February Tim Cook said that AppleTV remains a “hobby” since its potential is considerably smaller than the markets for mobile and tablet devices. Partly in response to GoogleTV, earlier this month Steve Jobs amplified Cook’s point with analysis.
Download audio to iPhone, iPad, and iPod here. (six minutes)
Essentially, Apple minimizes the Digital Living Room because there can be no “go-to-market” strategy. Jobs reasons that modernizing television requires replacing conventional set-top boxes with better designs. While readily conceding that Apple could develop such designs, he assumes they could not profitably sell them because the cable and satellite industries rent current set-tops for artificially low fees cross-subsidized by programming charges. By way of example he notes that TiVo, ReplayTV, Roku, Vudu, and similar products failed to tap into the mass market. Read more…
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Why Internet Video Will Be Gigantic (Part 1 of 2)
Posted on August 13, 2007
Summary: If you would like to learn how to get your video posted at numerous blogs and websites, and forwarded via countless emails, this interview is for you. (Part 1 of 2).
Our guest today is Josh Hawkins who is a Senior Marketing Manager at Brightcove. His company is an Applications-Service-Provider targeting professional video producers who want to optimize the distribution of their content around the Internet. Read more…
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Distributing and Monitizing Your Video at Other Websites (Part 2 of 2)
Posted on July 24, 2007
(Part 2 of 2) If you would like to learn about an ASP that enables you to distribute and monetize your Digital Media across the Internet, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Marty Roberts who is the Vice President of Marketing at thePlatform. His company, owned by Comcast, is basically an ASP enabling video created for the Internet to be widely distributed, syndicated, and monetized.
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Distributing and Monitizing Your Video at Other Websites
Posted on July 21, 2007
(Part 1 of 2) If you would like to learn about an ASP that will enable you to distribute and monetize your Digital Media across the Internet, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Marty Roberts who is the Vice President Marketing at the Platform. His company, owned by Comcast, is basically an ASP that enables video created for the Internet to be widely distributed, syndicated, and monetized.
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