Continued Cord Cutting Hits the Pay TV Business Hard

An anonymous reader writes: Cord cutting is not a new concern for the pay TV business but a recent massive sell-off in media stocks has many in the industry worried. Cable, satellite and TV companies suffered their worst-ever quarterly subscriber declines losing more than half a million accounts, sending stocks tumbling. Researchers say this may be the beginning of the end for the pay TV business. According to analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson: "A year ago, the Pay TV sector was shrinking at an annual rate of 0.1 percent. A year later, the rate at which the Pay TV sector is declining has quickened to 0.7 percent year-over-year. That may not seem like a mass exodus, but it is a big change in a short period of time. And the rate of decline is still accelerating."

Comments

Try focusing on keeping subscribers

[jafiwam]

If they spent their time keeping subscribers happier rather than cannibalizing subscribers of other types of service they wouldn't be losing so much.

The NUMBER ONE difference in cost between services comes from moving from one to another.

If my monthly bill didn't slowly creep up after a couple of years, I wouldn't be forced to move to something else. Instead of whoring out for "new bundles", just offer a lower price. 99% of the people moving service don't want to or have to because of coverage, but do because they can save $60 a month with a new "introductory" bundle somewhere else.

Also there is this strange resistance to allowing users to pick what they want to watch and pay for only that. Believe it or not, some people don't want four channels of QVC, and they'd rather pay the $8 for the weather channel (or whatever) instead of $22 for a bunch of shit along with the weather channel.

Re:Try focusing on keeping subscribers

[H3lldr0p]

The entertainment industry has a long history of ignoring their customers and trying to dictate what is popular.

For a short time, relatively speaking, they've been able to figure out how to do that and reaping a huge profit while it was happening. The amount of money was so big it blinded them to how the world and their markets were changing. Instead, these industries focused and focused again on how to industrialize (for lack of a better term) popularity of a few things. That is to say the popularity of "Boy Bands" in the '90s wasn't a complete accident and that yes, if you thought there was a formula for them there is indeed is.

At this point, much of the upper brass in these companies are so entrenched into these methods of profit that they can't see how to get out and maintain their power structures. It's not just the profits that they've become used to. It's also their position. Which is only human. They perceive that they've worked hard to become VP or Pres of their current company and their actions aren't going to disrupt that even if it means long term their industry will survive.

For what it's worth, these companies will continue to discount the success of Netflix and others simply because to do otherwise would likely imperil their current position. Change, will only occur when the companies are facing complete ruin, if it happens at all. Until such time that we see TW or Sony winding up their studio arms, I don't think we'll see them adapting.

Re:Try focusing on keeping subscribers

[jandrese]

The cost is the elephant in the room. Cable has gotten very expensive and the alternatives are so much cheaper. Plus far too many cable channels have dropped their interesting programming for cheap reality programming. How many historical documentaries does the History Channel show now? How much Sci-Fi can you find on SyFy? Animal planet now advertises how "human" they are. How many cooking channels do we really need? The worst part is some of the best new shows are coming out on streaming services like Netflix. The industry still has not realized that their shortsighted greed has doomed them in the long run.

No kidding.

[Scutter]

Who'd have thought that treating your customers like scumbags and cash cows might eventually cause them to leave?

This is my surprised face.

Re:Clearly, the solution is to show more ads!

[dpidcoe]

As someone who literally hasn't had a TV (in the traditional sense) in their house for 20 years, I'm always shocked at the sheer amount of advertising whenever I'm on business travel and the hotel internet isn't fast enough for netflix. Even if it's a show I'm intensely interested in, I'd much rather wait for it to come out on DVD or arrive on netflix than suffer through all the advertising. A bit at the top and bottom of each hour, sure, but ~5 minutes of commercials every ~5 minutes? How do "normal" people stand for that?

Re:Expect the Republicans to stop this...

[Darinbob]

You've fallen into the trap. The real struggle should be corporate control of the country versus control by the people, but the corporations have convinced too many people that there's a left vs right fight going on, or a liberal versus conservative struggle. It is distracting you from the real enemy. If you think Disney or Comcast are "liberal" then you have drunk their lemonade. Corporations are not political, they are instead impersonal hive minds. They follow the winds of change without any loyalty to any political brand except for money. American has been deluded into thinking that if they're anti-abortion that they must always be anti-tax at the same time, and if they're pro-gay-rights that they must automatically be pro-union. It's stupid, there area million different political stances that any voter could have and yet we're being fooled into thinking that there are only two: us versus them.

Don't hate Disney because they have different political views than your tribe has, but hate them because they're replacing "we the people" with "we the stockholders".

Re:NCAA

[ncc74656]

I'd much rather wait for it to come out on DVD or arrive on netflix than suffer through all the advertising.

Does the College Football Playoff ever get to DVD or Netflix?

Who cares? The lack of spectator sports on Netflix is a feature, not a bug.

Re:Expect the Republicans to stop this...

[kilfarsnar]

Yea, I'm SURE the Republicans want to help the liberal Comcast, Disney, and TW... yea that's the ticket.

It has nothing to do with "liberal" or "conservative". It's that they're all family. They all share the last name, "Inc.".

Seriously, what idiot thinks corporations give a crap about liberal or conservative? If anyone was paying attention to the Republican debate, Donald Trump (of all people) broke it down for them. He gives money to everyone. He explained, on national TV, that he buys politicians as a matter of course. Left, right and center they take his money and are available when he needs something. And people still think I'm extreme when I say that this country is an oligarchy.