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Tag: Verizon FiOS

  • lost 2.5 mn viewers between 2010 and 2012: FCC

    lost 2.5 mn viewers between 2010 and 2012: FCC

    MUMBAI: According to recently released FCC data from their annual report on cable industry competition, the cable industry lost roughly 2.5 million video subscribers between 2010 and 2012. According to the FCC, cable operators laid claim to 57.3 million pay TV subscribers at the end of 2012, down from 59.8 million in 2010. 

    Most of these customers flocked to telcoTV, with AT&T U-Verse increasing their subscriber total from three million to 4.1 million between 2010 and 2012, and Verizon FiOS’s total subscriber total going from 3.5 million to 4.5 million during the same stretch. Verizon and AT&T recently announced they’ve both passed the five million cable TV subscriber mark, giving them more TV customers than all but the nation’s two largest traditional cable companies: Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

    Cord cutters make up a very small but growing part of the equation as well, with even the industry’s biggest cord cutting deniers now acknowledging the glacial but inevitable trend toward less expensive internet options for many users.

    Meanwhile, the FCC report also pointed out that the soaring costs of programming is slowly but surely driving many of the nation’s smaller cable operators out of business. “800 cable systems serving over 35,000 subscribers have closed mostly in small and rural communities, leaving those communities without any wireline MVPD (cable video) service,” claims the report.

  • A research by GfK reveals a rise in cord cutting in the US

    A research by GfK reveals a rise in cord cutting in the US

    MUMBAI: A research conducted by GfK Media & Entertainment shows that the estimated number of Americans relying exclusively on over-the-air (OTA) television broadcasting increased to 59.7 million, up from 54 million just a year ago. The percentage of TV households currently OTA reliant has grown from 14 per cent in 2010 to 19.3 per cent in the current survey, a 38 per cent increase in just four years. The survey also found that the demographics of broadcast-only households continue to skew toward younger adults, minorities and lower-income families.

    The 2013 Ownership Survey and Trend Report, part of The Home Technology Monitor research series, found that 19.3 per cent of all US households with TVs rely solely on OTA signals to watch TV programming; this compares with 17.8 per cent of homes reported as broadcast-only last year. Overall, GfK estimates that 22.4 million households representing 59.7 million consumers receive television exclusively through broadcast signals and are not subscribing to a pay-TV service (i.e. a traditional pay-TV service such as cable, satellite, Verizon FIOS or AT&T U-Verse).

    “Over-the-air households continue to grow, making up an increasingly sizeable portion of television viewers,” says GfK Media & Entertainment senior VP David Tice. And, the proportion of households that have never paid for cable or satellite service also continues to grow. “Our research reveals that over-the-air broadcasting remains an important distribution platform of TV programming; this year‘s results confirm the statistically significant growth in the number of broadcast-only TV households in the US, which we identified in 2012.”

    According to the 2013 study, 5.9 per cent of TV households “cut the cord” in their current home at some point in the past. Among households that eliminated pay-TV service responding to the 2013 survey, most report overall cost-cutting or not enough value for cost as the reason for doing so (respondents could give more than one reason). These were also the top reasons given in the 2012 survey for eliminating pay-TV service.

    Homes headed by younger adults are also more likely to access TV programming exclusively through broadcast signals. Twenty-eight percent of homes with a head of household age 18-34 (up from 18 per cent in 2010) are broadcast only, compared with 19 per cent of homes in which the head of household is 35-49, or 17 per cent of homes in which the head of household is 50 years of age or older. Two out of ten (21 per cent) younger over-the-air households have never purchased a pay TV service according to the current survey.