Slashdot Mirror
Comcast Excited To Have Lost 4,000 TV Subscribers This Spring (consumerist.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Consumerist: Comcast has released their second quarter results and they are happy to announce that they lost 4,000 TV subscribers in the last three months. Why are they so happy to announce such a loss? Because, compared to the same time last year where they lost 69,000 TV subscribers, the loss this year is much better for them. Comcast said in a statement to investors that "video customers net losses improved to 4,000, the best second quarter result in over 10 years." That Consumerist reports: "That means that for the most than a decade, the best Comcast can do in April to June of every year is to lose only 4,000 TV subscribers. At this time last year, Comcast reported 22.3 million TV subscribers, and at the same time this year, they report roughly 22.3 million TV subscribers. The major driver of increased subscriptions comes, as you'd guess, from broadband. Comcast reports an increase of 220,000 broadband customers in the second quarter which, in the overall growth of the company, entirely offsets a lost of 4,000 TV viewers."
A high-flying stock missed the quarterly earnings by a penny per share and the share price plunged 50% in after market trading.
Translation: Stock analysts are dicks.
They pretty much force the TV subscription on you these days. They pretty much forced a TV subscription on me even though I'm an Internet-only user since it's actually cheaper to have the cable package than the Internet package alone. I haven't even opened the cable box they sent me.
"Is that dad? Either that or Batman's really let himself go."
I haven't been a subscriber in 8 years and I get something in the mail from Comcast.... Every. Single. Day.
I know sending junk mail costs next to nothing, but maybe if they step it down a notch they can save a few dollars.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Remember when they where gaining subscribers because of Lost?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Even with its tricks of increasing the pricing of Internet only service so that the "Internet + TV package" looks like a great deal, they still can't keep people subscribed to Cable. A lot of people are simply fed up with the horrible Cable TV experience and simply don't want it at any price. The funny part is that the current proposal by the FCC to open up the CableBox to competition (something the Cable lobby has been fighting tooth-and-nail) would go a long way to improve the experience and possibly save the Cable TV Industry in the long run
Seriously, in other "news", Amazon sees a huge decline in revenue in Q1 every year ...
Yes, Comcast, and just about every other related company (cable, IPTV, or satellite), loses subs every year in Q2, or at best sees fewer gains. People tend to move out of their houses in the spring, so that they can sell during the peak buying summer season, since families with children prefer not to move during the school year. And college students cancel their subscriptions when school ends in May or June (Q2) for the summer (even broadband, if they are living off campus). Typically, they gain the majority (or perhaps more, some years) of those subs back in Q3 or Q4; as evidenced by the "flat" year-over-year numbers.
Yes, losing 4,000 subs in Q2 is something for Comcast to celebrate, because if history is any indication, that means that they are actually going to see positive growth for the year. But it's not all good news. It's entirely possible that history isn't an indication, and that the reason that fewer subs were lost in Q2 this year was because there are fewer students subscribing in the first place. And that means that these subs won't reappear in the fall, if that's the case. I can't tell for certain, but it's a possibility.
Knowing my high school classmates in BC get 200 Mbps for $20 a month makes me furious.
They're lying, or in one of a few very specific buildings... the rest of us suffer with plans as bad as what's south of the border, or worse.
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
I worked at USPS and I can confirm that Comcast is on a whole different level than anyone else when it comes to sending junk mail, in measures of both frequency and address coverage.
The best measure you had that a house was empty was when they would get no mail other than Comcast junk.
I remember on one block on my very first route there was a tiny old empty house behind some trees back by an alley... if it weren't for Comcast junk making me go out of my way to look to see if such an address actually existed, I never would have noticed that hidden house. :P
Trust me, your mailman gets no joy from having to shove all that junk in your box.
Even if Comcast remains a natural monopoly, it will not be able to push it's expensive TV packages riddles with ads and worthless filler channels. Speeds and rates can then be addressed with regulation and services like Sling will compete on price and quality.
do it. I have about $200 worth of antenna wire and splitters feeding four sets. All get networks and PBS. Cablevision jacked me $10 per month for no TV, but after raising the bill $6 per month for sports I don't watch, and $8 per month per box to decrypt a signal THEY decided to encrypt, I am still way ahead. My Tivos are well amortized, but for $40 you can get a Homeworx/Mediasonic box and add a $60 Hard Drive, and for one expense of $100 once you get basic VCR function. If you can't put up an antenna, or you are too far for what you can put up, I understand...but if you can, a bunch of wire in the air for a one time expense is the ultimate bargain.