Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

The Triple-Play Bundle Is Dead, But This Surprisingly Popular Bundle Just Might Stop Cable Companies' Bleeding

Market research outfit Parks Associates offers up a glimpse of the bundle's penetration: As of the end of the first quarter of this year, 19% of U.S. broadband subscribers also enjoy wireless/mobile service offered by the same provider.

It's not a lot, admittedly. But put it in perspective. Charter's Spectrum only began offering mobile phone service in mid-2018. It now serves nearly 2.7 million mobile customers. Comcast's Xfinity Mobile platform only launched in mid-2017, and it's already signed up 3.1 million wireless subscribers. The portion of domestic broadband customers who have bundled their high-speed internet service with a mobile plan has grown from only around 11% in early 2019, according to Parks Associates' data, to the aforementioned current figure of 19%.

Parks Associates indicates the average cost of a broadband/mobile combo is $128 per month. With stand-alone broadband service costing an average of $64 per month, the other $64 of the combo's total cost is on par with a typical wireless service plan's monthly cost. Although the mobile service arena is highly competitive, at least we know that all the major names in the mobile telecom business are profitable. Given how the cable television industry has been on the defensive for years, conversely, it's not always clear if there's still any real profit to be gleaned by being in the business.

From the article, "The Triple-Play Bundle Is Dead, But This Surprisingly Popular Bundle Just Might Stop Cable Companies' Bleeding" by James Brumley. 

Previously In The News

Where’s the antenna support on streaming-TV boxes?

Antenna use is on the rise. According to Parks Associates, 15 percent of U.S. homes with broadband service used an antenna instead of traditional pay TV service in Q3 2016, up from around 10 percent a...

SmartThings Bundling Hubs In Effort To Play Up Smart Home Use Cases, Not Products

The independent home automation hub is fading as a means to a do-it-yourself smart home purchase, Robert Parker, SmartThings senior vice president-engineering, told us after his keynote at the Parks’...

On-Demand Tech Support Companies HelloTech, Geekatoo Announce Merger

Geekatoo executive chairman Christian Shelton saw demand for tech services rising as more people add internet-connected devices - such as the smart thermostat Nest or Wi-Fi camera Dropcam - to their h...

Report: Antenna Only Homes Increase to 15 Percent

While we’re certainly no longer in the days where people had a pair of rabbit ears on top of their TV sets, the use of antennas are making a little bit of a comeback according to a recent report from...