What has cable company executives losing sleep at night? It's certainly not thoughts on how to improve customer service or billing. But it's also not Netflix, Hulu, BitTorrent or any other obvious customer siphon. No, cable suits confess, it's actually the fact that a growing number of Americans find themselves too poor to pay to watch TV.
"We have to be sensitive in making sure we have a product that consumers can afford," said the president of Cox Communications at this week's Cable Show industry event.
Chimed in Time Warner Cable's CEO, "There clearly is a growing underclass of people who clearly can't afford [cable]. It would serve us well to worry about that group."
Talking about the cable industry's largely unchecked ability to raise rates when and how it wants, one analyst tells Reuters that cable companies have priced themselves into a corner:
“That has been a wonderfully attractive model for a generation, but the danger, of course, is that eventually the video product will be priced into irrelevance for lower income consumers... I don't know when it will happen, but I suspect we're already perilously close. ”
Cable worried about poverty, not Netflix [Reuters via CrooksAndLiars]
Tried to tell you this before. Cable companies who have the monopoly like Comcast don't care how much they charge and now they will find they will be losing money now that they have bought into other companies and customers continue to cut cable.
ReplyDeleteNow a government monopoly, next, requests for government subsidies! Thank God we have all these 18 month MBA wonders running our businesses into the ground!
ReplyDeleteA day will soon be upon us whereby we will be able to stream our own choice of programming.
ReplyDeleteIt is the cable company's worst nightmare.
SBYnews has already experimented with this technology and many have witnessed it first-hand.
Based on average income, cable prices are extremely unreasonable! Can't see paying over a hundred dollars a month for a handful of channels that I watch! Most of the channels are garbage anyway! Competition is really needed here in Salisbury. Bay Country in Cambridge charges half of what Comcast charges! My mother who is retired could no longer afford comcast rates and had to finally cancel with them. I am now debating to getting rid to them because of being forced to use their cable boxes to view channels!
ReplyDeleteMy cable bill is already close to $300, which is outrageous. Of course it is phone, internet, and cable. However, it is too expensive and I will look for ways to reduce it.
ReplyDeletewe have direct tv and love it ,love it ,love it!!!
ReplyDeleteHow ever you decide to receive entertainment you will still need a connection most likely from a cable company. What most people don't realize is the cost of your monthly cable bill depends on franchise fees so once again the government steps in even on the local level with their hand out which drives up costs which is passed on to the consumer which is basically a TAX. The cable bills in some of the most high end cities in the country have a much lower cable bill then ours from the same companies.
ReplyDeleteI disconnected cable ten years ago to save money. To be truthful, there's very little that I miss about it.
ReplyDeleteComcast just soaked me. I've had a package deal ( phone, internet,& TV) at my business for over 3 years. Switched all 3 years ago for 1 set price. Now they are telling me I was getting a lot of TV shows free because they had no way of controlling it. Now they can so they want me to pay an extra $45 per month. Such a rip off. Bunch of c^%%$s.
ReplyDeletecomcast knows they have a monopoly and treat their customers accordingly. they will squeeze every last penny out of you that they can. they have claimed a move to "all digital" so you now have to have a cable box per outlet to receive channels. the additional cost is $2 per outlet per month. next thing they'll figure out is how to charge by the minute for what you watch!!!
ReplyDeleteranger3325,,, Is a satellite distributor don't listen him he's promoting a business.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the option internet tv which still sucks, satellite always sucks during bad weather plus they charge high fees to fix anything,I refuse to get FIOS being they suck enough out of me from my cell phone bill.
ReplyDeleteIts still affordable,but just barely. If it goes up much more, or further cuts in the household budget need to be made, it will be the first to go. I doubt I will miss it much. Its 95% crap anyway.
ReplyDeleteI can afford cable, phone and internet, but may choose to cancel all three. Why, because I can, it's my choice what I spend my money on.
ReplyDeleteWhen I picked up my 2 new required boxes, I was suddenly charged for 4 boxes, a new outlet (that I didn't order or get), Showtime, all sorts of stuff. The final price? $511. Really???? The telephone fight went on for weeks until I finally got it fixed. Comcast is not only robbing us blind, they are sheisty! I, for one, refuse to pay $200+ a month to watch bad tv. Have had lots of problems with wireless internet, too, zillions of hours-long phone calls until finally someone came out and found a problem in the neighborhood. My "discount" for days without service? A whopping $12.00. Comcast is lousy all around.
ReplyDelete