Spectrum goes all streaming

[Bruce]

What will their business subs do? I was in Williamsburg, Virginia 2 months ago, they are in Cox territory and the resort I stayed at uses Cox, what will they do?

Who knows, we are heading into a whole new world then what we are used to with paid Live TV.

They will still provide broadband, once more businesses update their speeds and access, there will properly be business options like we have with YTTV.

I am amazed they use Cox for Video at resorts, DirecTV always seem to have a monopoly because of sports.

Anyways, Frontier, Fios, WOW are the 3 biggest that have ( or in the process) of dropping Live TV, Allitice ( former Cablevision) and maybe Cox are/is making plans also , Spectrum is going streaming only for it’s TV.

Profits are just not there anymore, for example, Dish Network revenue was $3.91 Billion for the second quarter of 2023, yet net (profit) was only $200 Million.

For the first 6 months of 2023, revenue for DirecTV, revenue was over $10 Billion, but profit was $1.9 Billion ( not even 20%), $800 Million less then the 6 months of 2022.

So, if profits continue to drop at the same rate, unprofitable in 2.5 years for DirecTV.

 

[lordodogg]

I am amazed they use Cox for Video at resorts, DirecTV always seem to have a monopoly because of sports.

They do get both their RSNs, MASN for the Nats & O's and Monumental Sports fka NBCSW for the Wizards and Capitals.
They seem to also distribute Amazon TNF to businesses in addition to D*, their TVs in the fitness center at that resort were hooked up to Cox Mini boxes (room TVs used encrypted QAM with only 80 channels, half of which were SD 16X9 feeds) and I noticed there were two channels 1968 and 5000 labeled "CBSPC - Cox Business Sports Channel HD" and they had a TNF standby screen with the theme music playing on a loop in the background.

 

[osu1991]

The rumor around work is Cox is thinking about getting out of video, they are now way under 3 Million subs, not making enough from it.

Been hearing the same thing from former colleagues that still work for Cox. One reason for the new push into brownfield fiber installs.

 

[Bobby]

What will their business subs do? I was in Williamsburg, Virginia 2 months ago, they are in Cox territory and the resort I stayed at uses Cox, what will they do?

They will go to Youtube TV. Other cable companies are doing this.

 

[lordodogg]

Isn't YouTube TV and nearly all other streaming services residential ONLY? EVen D* Stream is residential only! Yet for some reason AT&T stores can get around that rule because I've seen it showcased at all 5 of the stores I've been to in my area.

 

[Bruce]

Isn't YouTube TV and nearly all other streaming services residential ONLY? EVen D* Stream is residential only! Yet for some reason AT&T stores can get around that rule because I've seen it showcased at all 5 of the stores I've been to in my area.

Yes, but obviously, if market forces demand it, there will be streaming options for businesses sooner or later.

 

[lordodogg]

Have any of you seen this ad for the new Spectrum streaming box?

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/lKf3HlWQ8Mg?si=CcJJ7M175GtSwcYb

 

[Bruce]

Have any of you seen this ad for the new Spectrum streaming box?

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/lKf3HlWQ8Mg?si=CcJJ7M175GtSwcYb

All the stories have said it is just a rebadged Comcast Flex Box.

I had the flex box back in Michigan, such a POS, locked up, slow to respond, apps would crash, etc.

Lasted a day in my house.

Hope they made a lot of improvements, if not, going to be a lot of peeved people.

Do not know why they are going this, Spectrum and Comcast already have apps for this, I tried the Comcast one on my step father’s Roku Ultra a few years ago, worked really well.

 

[ncted]

All the stories have said it is just a rebadged Comcast Flex Box.

I had the flex box back in Michigan, such a POS, locked up, slow to respond, apps would crash, etc.

Lasted a day in my house.

Hope they made a lot of improvements, if not, going to be a lot of peeved people.

Do not know why they are going this, Spectrum and Comcast already have apps for this, I tried the Comcast one on my step father’s Roku Ultra a few years ago, worked really well.

Probably so they can charge box fees. It will start "cheap", $5/month, and then they will ramp up the fees over time.

 

[Bruce]

Probably so they can charge box fees. It will start "cheap", $5/month, and then they will ramp up the fees over time.

They could do that with a Roku also, call it a per TV access fee.

My complaint about it is not for a possible fee ( which I do not doubt they will do), it is because it is just a terrible streaming box if it is the flex and amazed they are using it.

For example, from earlier in the year-

They are trash! We constantly (I'm talking daily - all day) have issues with the picture freezing, errors connecting, or pixelating, both live and especially DVR shows. DVR also has gaps in recordings. This is already our second box and we have no problems with our older box in the bedroom upstairs.

https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/flex/continuing-issues-with-flex-box/63eaf43e93ca694b272e81a0#

If you just do a simple Google search, Flex Box terrible, so many pop up.

 

[evenout]

What's stopping Charter and Comcast and any other big cable TV operator from just creating a Roku app to expand their TV subscription footprint beyond their physical cable footprint?

Not saying I would subscribe to it, but neither Charter or Comcast is available where I live. But I have high speed Internet. My options for TV are either satellite or YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling, DirecTV Stream, and Fubo TV. Why couldn't Charter and Comcast be an option for me, if they had a Roku app like these other providers?

Or is the market just saturated enough with those 5 other providers I listed?

 

[Bruce]

What's stopping Charter and Comcast and any other big cable TV operator from just creating a Roku app to expand their TV subscription footprint beyond their physical cable footprint?

Nothing, just some kind of unspoken agreement about going into other’s territory, maybe it is for streaming TV also.

I have never seen Comcast try to move into a Charter area, same the other way.

My guess once sub numbers go so far down, both will give up TV, just stick with Broadband, which is a lot more profitable.

Not saying I would subscribe to it, but neither Charter or Comcast is available where I live. But I have high speed Internet. My options for TV are either satellite or YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling, DirecTV Stream, and Fubo TV. Why couldn't Charter and Comcast be an option for me, if they had a Roku app like these other providers?

Who do you have for Broadband?

If Charter/Comcast was going to do it, they would of done it by now.

But YTTV is winning this battle, in it’s short existence, they are about to surpass Dish Satellite in subscriber numbers in the next quarter, gained 600,000 last quarter, only 120,000 behind Dish Satellite and a million behind DirecTV Satellite.

Or is the market just saturated enough with those 5 other providers I listed?

Based on the losses Cable/Satellite have had, down to 43% of Households (out of 131 Million total in the US), way too saturated.

 

[savarese04]

I would imagine that none of them want to go beyond their "territory" because of how cable is regulated. It's not currently considered a utility, but I would imagine that if these companies start bleeding into territories, they'll lose whatever "compelling" argument they have with the FCC to keep them from dergulating the transmission lines?

 

[navychop]

It’s a Rights issue. Just because you have the “right” to send out programs over cable, does not mean you can stream it.

 

[Bruce]

It’s a Rights issue. Just because you have the “right” to send out programs over cable, does not mean you can stream it.

Except they do stream it, just not out of their territory.

And who would want to start a new Live TV Service, streaming or otherwise, sure way to go broke nowadays.

 

[navychop]

Only if they obtained the rights.

 

[ncted]

They could do that with a Roku also, call it a per TV access fee.

By having their own platform, they don't have to share ad revenue with Roku or any other device vendor.

 

[Bruce]

By having their own platform, they don't have to share ad revenue with Roku or any other device vendor.

But the Flex is Android based, cannot say Google does not like money.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Have any of you seen this ad for the new Spectrum streaming box?

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/lKf3HlWQ8Mg?si=CcJJ7M175GtSwcYb

I'm just waiting for him to bust his butt running like that.

 

[ncted]

But the Flex is Android based, cannot say Google does not like money.

Lots of things are Android based that don't include Google Services, such as Amazon's FireTV platform (for the moment anyway). It is an open source platform. I don't know whether the Xumo box has much Google stuff installed or not, but it wouldn't be strictly necessary for Google to be involved at all.