OTT & Broadband help MSOs tide over ‘Pay TV’ losses

Although US cable operators have some good news to celebrate in 2012, having posted their best third-quarter performance in terms of video subscribers in at least two years, they still lost nearly half

a million subscribers during the period as competition from IPTV services from telcos such as Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse continued to diminish the cable companies’ opportunity to add new households to their customer rolls.

Even worse for them, according to IHS Screen Digest, their net subscriber losses for the full year of 2012 are expected to exceed those in 2011, according to the information and analytics provider’s Television Intelligence Report.

Subscriber numbers decreased because the attractiveness of Over-The-Top (OTT) services delivered over the open Internet, and an ailing economy also dissuaded a portion of new households from even considering taking a pay-TV subscription. These new households that are eschewing pay-TV in favour of OTT – which could be called ‘cord nevers,’ rather than ‘cord cutters’ – represent a lost segment of the market for pay-TV operators.”

For the full year 2012, US cable subscribers are anticipated to shrink to 56.6 million, down 3 per cent from 58.4 million in 2011. This compares to a 2.8 percent contraction in 2011.

IHS Screen Digest says the year 2012 will represent the ninth consecutive year of decline in US cable video subscribers, going back to 2004. While the video portion of the cable business continues to struggle, the operators are making gains in two other endeavours: high-speed data and voice.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/technology-news/item/851-ott--broadband-help-msos-tide-over-%E2%80%98pay-tv%E2%80%99-losses.html