By B.L. Ochman @whatsnext
Comcast has come up with a new way to fight cord cutters. And it sucks.
In markets where Comcast is a monopoly or duopoly, cord cutters who don’t pay for cable channels will be relegated to super-slow Internet speeds.
Comcast has long been imposing data caps on customers. So now, if you agree to buy cable, your Internet speed is being increased at no extra charge — for now.
“Cord cutters are not invited to the [speed increase] party,” the Houston Chronicle wrote. “Only those who bundle Internet with cable television and other services… will see their speeds go up at no extra charge.”
Cord Cutters Cost Comcast Cash
In their latest quarterly earnings statement, Comcast said it lost 96,000 video customers and saw video revenue decrease 0.8 percent, “primarily due to a decline in the number of residential customers.”
Kids’ TV networks have lost half of their audiences over the past decade. And this season is looking like it’ll be the worst yet. Hardly anyone in the industry predicts a turnaround.
The Netflix Generation
With its shares climbing 58 percent this year, Netflix is bringing more youth-oriented production in-house. Netflix hired hired Melissa Cobb away from a DreamWorks joint venture to run its kids and family division. The division just produced a new live-action series, “Alexa & Katie.”
Cord cutting will only accelerate as new batches of kids raised on the Internet join the fray. Networks are going to have to figure out how to make more money from shows they produced – whether they are online or or broadcast on the tube.
Related
Hi,
I wanted to take the opportunity to clarify that “cord cutters who don’t pay for cable channels will be relegated to super-slow Internet speeds” is inaccurate. Comcast increased speeds for all customers in 24 states by 50 Mbps+ this year – including for internet-only customers. Importantly, all internet tiers are available as standalone internet service without any requirement to take TV or any other product. Currently, 75% of Comcast customers have speeds of 100 Mbps+ and Gig-speed is available in more than 90% of our area as a standalone product. Thanks! -Dan P.
Hi Dan — thanks for your response. Articles in Boing Boing, Ars Technica and Bloomberg all back up what I’ve written. Additional articles in Gizmodo “Comcast is boosting Internet speeds – except for you filthy cord cutters,” https://gizmodo.com/comcast-is-boosting-internet-speeds-except-for-you-filt-1825685759.
Given all those articles, I’d say there’s some pretty clear evidence that, in fact, Comcast does cut the speed and/or impose data caps to cord cutters.
B.L.
Thanks, BL. Wanted to note that several of those article then updated with corrections to include all or part of our statement pointing out the inaccuracies in the initial premise. The Gizmodo article you link to was among them. Here is the statement if you’d like to update your article as well:
“This year alone, we have boosted speeds for Internet-only customers and customers in packages in more than two dozen different states across the country which added at least 50 Mbps more speed for these customers. In a few of our markets, we are also testing different multi-product packages by changing the Internet tiers for various packages we offer. Importantly, all of our internet tiers can be purchased as a stand-alone service by ANY Xfinity customer. We continue to deliver the fastest speeds to the most homes in the country – in fact, 75% of our customers now have speeds of 100 Mbps or higher and Gigabit service is now available to more than 90 percent of our service area, including Internet-only customers.”
So to reiterate, this change was a change in some packages available to some customers in parts of our service area. We did not cut speeds for any customers and, importantly, all of our speed tiers – including Gigabit – are available as standalone products without needing to take any additional products. Appreciate the opportunity to correct this. Thanks!
Hi Dan – Here’s another article about Comcast throttling customers. It’s from Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/07/comcast-starts-throttling-mobile-video-will-charge-extra-for-hd-streams/