November 17, 2012: Cable operators have been bleeding basic video subscribers over the past few years, and a research firm predicts that satellite pay TV revenues will exceed cable’s for the first time by 2016.
“Ongoing challenging economic conditions in the key revenue-generating markets of North America and Western Europe have resulted in slowing subscriber and revenue growth in the cable TV market,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research.
“Subscribers are far less loyal than they used to be. The cable TV industry is characterized more by churn than cord cutting, as subscribers take advantage of introductory pricing on satellite and IPTV subscriptions that’s 30-50 percent below their cable bills. DirecTV, Verizon, AT&T, and Virgin Media have all set their sights on existing cable subscribers, and they’re seeing their subscriber bases increase as cable TV subscriptions shrink.”
Read more at CED.