https://www.techdirt.com/2023/02/02/cord-cutting-is-hitting-comcast-harder-than-ever/ [ ] Techdirt. [ ] * Sign In * Register * Preferences Techdirt [ ] * TechDirt * GreenHouse * Free Speech * Deals * Jobs * Support Techdirt [podcast-ti] CFL Decides To Shut Down Cool YouTube Channel Promoting Its Product For Free Trump Files Ridiculous Copyright Lawsuit Over Bob Woodward's Audio Book Cord Cutting Is Hitting Comcast Harder Than Ever [failures] Failures from the apathy-isn't-a-business-model dept Thu, Feb 2nd 2023 05:25am - Karl Bode For a while there, everybody's least favorite cable company, Comcast, was weathering the cord cutting revolution fairly well. The company's losses on the cable TV side could simply be recouped over on its broadband side, where a monopoly protected it from having to actually, you know, try. Things have shifted. Last year, Comcast saw a record 11 percent of its customer base cancel their Comcast cable service in favor of streaming video, over the air broadcasts, or free services like TikTok. And the company lost lost 440,000 traditional video customers in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone, a big bump over the 227,000 customers it lost in the last three months of 2021. Overall, Internet disruption hasn't been kind to the cable giant, and it appears to only be getting worse: Worse, the 2.034 million pay TV customers lost by Comcast in 2022 was a significant uptick over the 1.67 million lost in 2021. Overall, Comcast's pay TV base eroded by a huge 11.2% last year, and it now serves only around 16.1 million subscribers. Just three years ago, that figure stood at nearly 20 million customers. The company has had some better success with its own streaming video service, Peacock, adding five million new customers in one quarter. The problem: those users pay significantly less money than the traditional cable customers they're losing, and Peacock itself has been a net loss so far: Peacock's quarterly losses grew to $978 million from Oct. 1 - Dec. 31. In Q3, Peacock reported losses of $614 million. For all of 2022, Comcast and NBCU lost around $3 billion -- the "peak", they claim -- building Peacock. Comcast still has its broadband monopoly to protect itself from pesky innovation. But even that's facing some new challenges. Fixed 5G wireless providers are starting to nibble away at the company's frustrated subscriber base, and cooperatives, utilities, and municipalities -- buoyed by an historic infusion of broadband subsidies -- are also gaining steam. At this rate Comcast may, someday in the not so distant future, be required to actually try. Filed Under: 5g, broadband, cable tv, cord cutting, monopoly, streaming tv, tv, video Companies: comcast 30 CommentsLeave a Comment If you liked this post, you may also be interested in... * Charter's $7 Billion Penalty For Murdering An Elderly Customer Reduced To $262 Million * It Took Months For Anker To Finally Admit Its Eufy Cameras Weren't Really Secure * Starry's Broadband Ambitions Fall Apart, Lays Off More Employees * Netflix's Password Sharing Cash Grab Finally Arrives In The States * New Dumb Attack Against Gigi Sohn Tries To Shame Her For Being On The EFF's Board * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Rate this comment as insightful Rate this comment as funny You have rated this comment as insightful You have rated this comment as funny Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam You have flagged this comment The first word has already been claimed The last word has already been claimed Lightbulb icon Laughing icon Flag icon Lightbulb icon Laughing icon Comments on "Cord Cutting Is Hitting Comcast Harder Than Ever" Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment * Filter comments in by Time * Filter comments as Threaded * Filter only comments rated Insightful * Filter only comments rated funny LOL * Filter only comments that are Unread 30 Comments Collapse all replies [51c960f716]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 6:38 am At this rate Comcast may, someday in the not so distant future, be required to actually try. There is no "try"... Collapse replies (1) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [2] This comment has been deemed funny by the community. [518d5dee48]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 9:02 am Re: There is no "try"... Well, they're Comcast, so there's no "do" either. Just "talk", and of course "lobby". Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [69c2635b87]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 7:10 am I love getting my Comcast bill now. I save around $2000 a year compared to when I paid for TV and Phone. Now I spend a few hundred a year on streaming services, but its nothing compared to what I spent on TV. Collapse replies (6) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [2] [8cae9ef468]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 9:06 am Re: I love getting my Comcast bill now. I save around $2000 a year compared to when I paid for TV and Phone. What? If you're still paying Comcast monthly, how could you possibly have been paying them $167/month more previously? Did your plan include unlimited calls to the moon? That's more than I spend on food. Collapse replies (5) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [3] [7ea61ef225]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 12:16 pm Re: Re: It was actually more than $167 because when I cancelled my phone and television portion I increased the speed of my internet to 1 gig. I had been paying around $300 a month for internet/phone/television. Now I pay $125. Collapse replies (4) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [4] [072280bb3c]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 4:12 pm Re: Re: Re: Wow. $300/month for sub-gigabit speeds? Okay, and TV and phone, but in France those come free with the $50/month gigabit service. Or did 10 years ago, anyway. Collapse replies (3) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [5] [u9608_100x0-1]rangda (profile) says: February 2, 2023 at 8:06 pm Re: Re: Re:^2 I'm in the US and pay around $275/mo for 75 mbit internet, tv, and phone (FIOS). The $300 for these utilities is pretty normal here. Now you know why these companies have been so anxious to preserve their monopoly. I'd have canceled phone/tv long ago but my wife is a luddite and insists on being able to channel surf. Collapse replies (2) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [6] [432e619f33]Anonymous Coward says: February 3, 2023 at 6:34 am Re: Re: Re:^3 I was the same way. You know what made me finally bite the bullet and cancel? When Comcast decided to take away Starz as part of my bundle while not lower the price in any way. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [6] [17bb82c3b1]Anonymous Coward says: February 3, 2023 at 6:35 am Re: Re: Re:^3 Luddite in today's usage means anyone opposed to new technology, but the original Luddites were textile workers who targetted machines whose owners put workers in bad working conditions for the sake of cutting costs. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word This comment has been deemed insightful by the community. [anonymous]Improbus (profile) says: February 2, 2023 at 7:24 am You Know... You know if people had an actual choice they would have ZERO customers. Collapse replies (1) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [2] [3974883218]Dave says: February 2, 2023 at 12:40 pm Re: Hence why Comcast so relentlessly protects its monopoly turf. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [a9f9392d88]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 7:41 am At this rate Comcast may, someday in the not so distant future, be required to actually try. Try what though? I think the most likely answer is try for more regulatory capture and try to get more anti-competition laws at the local and national level. Collapse replies (1) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [2] [bc0ca3730f]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 8:22 am Re: Or try charging users and streaming services to replace lost income. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [eecde46646]Drumfucius says: February 2, 2023 at 7:56 am Comcrap I finally kicked Comcrap internet to the curb and went with CenturyLink fios. Cheaper and way faster. I feel sorry for people that have no other choice. Collapse replies (2) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [2] [051daf139d]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 8:12 am Re: That's a sad day in hell when you can hold CenturyLink over Comcast's head. A really, really funny sad day. Collapse replies (1) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [3] [e513e3bed3]drumfucius says: February 3, 2023 at 8:46 am Re: Re: if your intention was to post a reply that doesn't make sense, you've succeeded. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [fdist]hij (profile) says: February 2, 2023 at 8:26 am FoX Revenue Increasing While cord cutting increases the revenue at FoX has continued to increase. They have had healthy increases each of the last several years. There is a disconnect between the cable providers and the media providers, but the cable providers continue to focus on the Internet providers rather than the companies costing them money. Their efforts to extract money from the companies that they have less control over has not served them well, but they continue to prefer to play nice with the Murdochs and other old media companies to their detriment. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [b3aba09f0a]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 8:30 am Ziply Fiber customer here, and as noted above, the differences are nothing short of amazing. Better customer service, much lower monthly bill, and a connection that never slows down or drops packets (at least, not so's I'd notice). Small wonder I'm one of the 227,000 cord cutters. The upfront equipment cost isn't quite what I could desire, but there is the option to rent, which is what I chose. That lets me build up some 'mad money' for a gateway/router purchase in a few months, and then it's an even further overall price reduction. FTTH or FIOS - if you can get it, do so. You'll thank me soon after. sumgai p.s. I am not a paid shill, I'm just a damned happy camper! Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [f4c451d49c]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 8:33 am nothing will hit (or hurt) any of these companies more than those taking backhander payments from them being forced and then forcing the companies to be honest! Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [31800bfc49]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 9:05 am Teetotaler Can say that I never fell for cable's internet monopoly, and my patience has been rewarded by Consolidated Communications running gig fiber to my house. Thrilled. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word This comment has been deemed funny by the community. [6037F8EF-8CA4-44]Cat_Daddy (profile) says: February 2, 2023 at 9:25 am Cord Cutting Is Hitting Comcast Harder Than Ever Oh no! Anyway... Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it. [930410ad50]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 9:54 am Really all ISP's are antiquated already. Always on connections to the Internet are not 1st world compatible. Having a phone with data is worse. No security whatsoever. TCP/IP is already inadequate for modern innovation. Options have always been a 1st world perk. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [fd17bbe81d]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 10:27 am Couldn't happen to a nicer company I unfortunately used to work at tech support for Comcast, and was fired a few months later. In a nutshell, I made a horrible mistake and actually tried to fix the customers problems. Unfortunately, in doing so that reduced my numbers on sending out a truck to perform onsight support. Additionally, even though we were tech support, we were also tasked to "upsell" those who called in so that they would add to their subscriptions. In other word, we have a pissed off customer calling for help and we in turn would try to sell more stuff to them. WTF?!?!? Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [u15439_100x0-1]Ninja (profile) says: February 2, 2023 at 10:31 am "Those pesky millenials not procreating..." - Comcast executive Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [7355b4aa46]Bob says: February 2, 2023 at 11:50 am Stop charging as much in fees as streaming services charge in a month Broadcast fee for free broadcast tv. RSN fee. Equipment fee. Equipment rentals. Oh and somewhere at the end theres still the big fat regular fee. Last I checked, even the basic cable tier was more in fees than the actual monthly fee. I could have Sling for less, and youtube tv for a bit more. There's no value there at all. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [621ab7e161]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 12:46 pm I'm Canadian. I wish I had Comcast up here :v Collapse replies (2) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [2] [8c7a80fd08]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 1:23 pm Re: I'm a Canadian. I do not wish Comcast being here. We do not need more American crony capitalist business models here. It's bad enough that America exported to us their fucked up copyright system. Collapse replies (1) Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word Threaded [3] [2cdb9689d0]Anonymous Coward says: February 2, 2023 at 1:49 pm Re: Re: Some actual competition might be nice to shake up the cozy Telus/ Rogers/Shaw/Bell world up here that's left us with some of the highest telecom rates out there. If you think the Canadian telcos aren't crony capitalism you've not been paying attention. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [u2515_100x0-1]ECA (profile) says: February 2, 2023 at 4:25 pm TRicky? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_IXDMfel80 These TV Stations Sold Out Antenna Viewers in $20 Billion FCC Repack Why is the FCC paying off Broadcast TV to Swap out of UHF? To lower bandwidth VHF? Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word [a62c322bee]Anonymous Coward says: February 3, 2023 at 3:15 am Comcast for internet and basic cable is about $200 Here is my assessment of internet quality for Comcast. Note that it is on the assumption that download speed slowdowns are not caused by throttling from the download source rather than the isp. Download speed throttling by the source is possible but seems less likely unless there are traffic limit concerns. Comcast internet is alright unless you need to download a large file. It seems like it's basically designed to cater to internet usage not including that, for example viewing webpages (a quick burst of speed to load the page) or streaming videos (a lower speed than maximum perhaps with a burst of speed at the start to move the buffer bar without delay). The connection is capable of delightfully high speeds but quickly throttles down in large file downloads. This seems to have improved somewhat in regards to large downloads from common sources, such as game dozens of GB large from Steam, but it still throttles down and massively increases the time taken to complete after a short high speed period at the start. This is frustrating because one knows the capability is there but is still gated behind what seems to be poor policy and not technical limitations, as the same slowdown is visible even at what can be assumed low usage times such as the middle of the US night. It might be this is gated behind a limitation on the download source, but I think it more likely that it is the ISP throttling as sometimes there is the rapid progress at the start of a download but it stalls to a lower speed before completion in my example for this, downloading a large program installer that contains music files that help bloat it's size. The common factor of fast speed followed by slowdown suggests isp throttling is to blame. Reply View in chronology Make this comment the first word Make this comment the last word --------------------------------------------------------------------- [] says: Add Your Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here Name [ ] Email [ ] [ ]Subscribe to the Techdirt Daily newsletter URL [ ] Subject [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Comment * [ ] Comment Options: (*)Use markdown. ( )Use plain text. 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