Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Residential broadband service is continuing to grow incredibly fast, and cord-cutters are still cutting.
In the first nine months of 2016, the number of U.S. households with broadband internet service has increased by 2 million, according to two new research reports by market analyst Bruce Leichtman, but the number of households that subscribe to bundled TV services like Comcast and Dish Network has decreased by 500,000 during that time.
“While major providers now account for nearly 92.5 million broadband subscribers in the US, the broadband market continues to expand with top cable providers driving the growth,” Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, noted in the report. “Over the past year, cable companies added more than 3.5 million broadband subscribers.”
At some point in the next year — assuming current trends hold — broadband households (92.5 million today) will outnumber bundled TV households (93.7 million today) for the first time. If you consider the fact that 10 percent of Americans have broadband internet access on their smartphones but don’t have broadband access at home, we’re already well past that point.
One factor that could throw a major curve into the declining number of bundled TV subscribers over the next few years is the growth of streaming services like Dish Network’s Sling TV app and Sony’s Playstation Vue. Both of those streaming services offer packages of cable channels like ESPN, TBS, FX, etc., on a single app for a monthly fee and don’t require authentication with a subscription to traditional satellite services like Dish Network or DirecTV, cable services like Comcast or Charter, or telco services like Verizon FIOS or AT&T U-verse.
AT&T, the largest provider of bundled TV services in the United States, has announced plans to begin offering a similar bundled TV app before the end of this month called DirecTV Now that will include more than 100 channels for $35 a month. Google and Hulu are both working on similar services that would launch in 2017.
AT&T has been shifting subscribers from its U-verse service — a fiber-optic-based service that is available only in certain markets —to its DirecTV satellite service that is available nationwide, and the DirectTV Now service could pull subscribers from both services as well as draw cord-cutters and cord-nevers who are looking for a cheap bundled TV package that they can stream on smartphones, tablets and connected-TV devices.
Sources within AT&T reportedly told Bloomberg that they expect DirecTV Now to be the company’s largest bundled TV service within the three to five years, and Variety has reported that AT&T may be planning to give Amazon Fire TV Sticks ($40 retail) to new customers who commit to one month of DirecTV Now service and Apple TVs ($149 retail) to new customers who commit to three months of DirecTV Now service.
Scott Porch writes about the streaming-media industry for Decider and is also a contributing writer for Playboy and Signature. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.
