Intro: Last quarter was the first time ever that US pay TV subscription rates were down. Now, according to GigaOM’s calculations, big cable suffered another set back in Q3, waving goodbye to over 500,000 subscribers in total. Comcast was saddled with over half of the carnage and lost 275,000 customers, while Time Warner took a 155,000 subscriber hit. Charter Communications and Cablevision fared slightly better, but still added 63,800 and 24,500 respectively to the industry pit of despair.
Naturally, the blame game for the poor numbers was aimed squarely at the weak economy and increased competition from over-the-top video providers.
My Take: So, not only Comcast is in trouble on US market. Also other players. The time is now for US cable companies, and time to consider things for Europe… and blaming it on the economy, well, music major companies and movie studios also tried denial…
Link: http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/05/big-cable-loses-500-000-subscribers-in-q3-we-neglect-to-send-fl/
New Media Foresight 