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Title: Pay-TV Companies Are in Crisis Mode
Source:
Bloomberg
URL Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti ... n-painful-time-for-at-t-viacom
Published: Oct 13, 2017
Author: Scott Moritz and Gerry Smith
Post Date: 2017-10-13 00:56:13 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 1304
Comments: 7
AT&T, whose ownership of the DirecTV satellite service makes it the biggest U.S. pay-television provider, said late Wednesday it will report a third-quarter loss of 390,000 satellite and cable customers, echoing a similar warning weeks earlier from Comcast Corp. The same night, Viacom cautioned that its distribution deal with Charter Communications Inc., the second-biggest cable U.S. company, may lead to a blackout, potentially testing whether millions of viewers are willing to go without MTV and Nickelodeon. Shares of both companies retreated Thursday, contributing to a broader selloff in the sector. The S&P 500 Media Index, which includes Comcast and ESPN owner Walt Disney Co., slid 2.3 percent to the lowest level since December. After decades of steadily increasing bills and ever-bigger packages of channels, the pay-TV ecosystem is in full-blown crisis mode. AT&T, Dish Network Inc. and others are offering cheaper, online-only versions of cable to lure customers back, but that means having to accept thinner profit margins. “Those salad days of fat bundles, automatic carriage renewals and customary affiliate steps ups are long gone,” Citigroup Inc. analyst Jason Bazinet wrote in a note this week. “Today, every media and cable firm is jockeying for self-preservation. And we suspect the next chapter in this new era means Charter will drop -- or significantly curtail -- distribution of Viacom’s content.” Barring a major fourth-quarter comeback, 2017 is on course to be the worst year for conventional pay-TV subscriber losses in history, surpassing last year’s 1.7 million, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. That figure doesn’t include online services like DirecTV Now. Even including those digital plans, the five biggest TV providers are projected to have lost 469,000 customers in the third quarter. AT&T sank 6.1 percent, the biggest one-day loss since November 2008. Dish, which also provides satellite service, declined 5.1 percent. Viacom dropped 2.5 percent while AMC Networks Inc. fell 6.8 percent after Guggenheim Securities LLC downgraded the two stocks to neutral from buy. Dallas-based AT&T is pushing headlong into TV programming by acquiring HBO and CNN owner Time Warner Inc. in an $85.4 billion deal. Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson has argued that the acquisition will let AT&T create compelling video packages for mobile subscribers and provide valuable targeting information for advertisers. But with video subscriptions falling, Stephenson is also under pressure to prove he can keep people paying for TV in the first place. “It is becoming increasingly clear that the wheels are falling off of satellite TV,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson LLC, in a research note. Poster Comment: Who is benefiting? "Netflix, presumably one of the beneficiaries of cord-cutting because former cable and satellite TV customers instead flock to its service, saw its shares rise less than 1 percent to $195.86, giving it a market cap of $84.6 billion, more than the combined value of Viacom, CBS and 21st Century Fox." 
Investors in traditional TV providers are reeling as companies from AT&T Inc. to Viacom Inc. fail to stop the desertion of customers lured away by cheaper entertainment options such as Netflix and Snapchat.
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Bloomberg: Comcast Pressures Local Cable Firms to Curb Low-Cost TV Packages Comcast has tried to limit the availability of sports-free offerings in contract talks with pay-TV operators, according to the American Cable Association, whose members have about 7 million subscribers. In addition to being the largest U.S. cable provider, Comcast owns regional sports channels in markets such as Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. The claim shows programmers are fighting back as more consumers seek TV options that don’t include sports. Cable operators are trying to stem subscriber losses by offering a “basic” service with just a few channels and internet access for fans of Netflix or Amazon. Philadelphia-based Comcast, for instance, recently started selling Instant TV, a streaming service with mostly broadcast channels but not ESPN, for $18 a month. In contract talks, Comcast has told small cable operators that if more than 15 percent of their subscribers get basic TV and internet service, they must include the regional sports networks in that bundle, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. That drives up the cost of the basic service and forces cable operators to suppress demand by raising prices, according to the cable group. The organization spelled out its concerns with Comcast in a letter Tuesday to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The agency regulates the industry and issues an annual report to Congress about competition among pay-TV operators. Officials with Comcast, which also owns NBC and cable channels including USA Network and Bravo, didn’t respond to a request for comment. . . .
A fun response to people "cutting the cable" (I haven't subscribed to it in decades) that recently has started happening is that now the broadcast companies are offering special exclusive streaming content -- for a subscription. A perfect example is the very recent advent of Star Trek: Discovery, which in the USA is only accessible via a subscription to CBS All Access. They tied this effort to a die-hard franchise (Trekkies are devoted to the shows) and coupled it with a very polished presentation. The hour-long programs are movie quality, they spent between $8-11 million per episode. So for, at their cheapest subscription, $5 / month Trekkies can watch between 4 or 5 hours of a brand new Star Trek series, plus have every single episode from all of the past Star Trek shows available to view as well. At least so far, it appears that their gamble is paying off. They have had a record number of subscriptions. Some of the entitled set are whining about it, but clearly a fair amount of people are willing to pay a small amount for specific shows that they like.
ST:D is a huge disappointment, really pathetic plot and characters. It ruins all the other Star Trek timelines. ST:D should be called Chick Trek. There's only one man on the entire show. The dialog is painfully feminine, focusing on feelings and inner journeys and 22nd century douches. The saucer of the Discovery spins like a birth control pill dispenser. The behavior of the female crew on the bridge is about like a women's restroom with open stalls. It's her-rible. I'm so glad I'm not paying to watch this shite.
ST:D should be called Chick Trek. There's only one man on the entire show. The dialog is painfully feminine, focusing on feelings and inner journeys and 22nd century douches. The saucer of the Discovery spins like a birth control pill dispenser. The behavior of the female crew on the bridge is about like a women's restroom with open stalls. It's her-rible. I'm so glad I'm not paying to watch this shite. On that I will disagree. Since you've stated that you haven't paid for it, then I assume that you haven't seen anything other than the free first two episodes. Yep, those two shows focused on the two chicks. Episodes 3 and 4 showed that Captain Georgio (the Asian chick) was eaten by the Klingons. One thing that was pleasant to see from a "progressive" show is that it showed one thing that matches reality. The commanders who were liberals died almost immediately when the fighting started. NOW, on episodes 3 and 4, the black chick (Burnham) is finally brought aboard the Discovery (the ship the show is named for) White guys are in charge of the Discovery, Burnham is at this point completely stripped of rank. Episode 4 was especially enjoyable to me. Captain Lorca is a military-style Captain, and he isn't taking any crap from anyone. One of their gay little liberal science officers started whining about "This is a science ship! I signed on to help with science, not war!" Lorca responds by telling the little twerp that they are at war, and so now the Discovery is a war ship. He then completely owns the whiny little libtard by ordering the computer to broadcast shipwide the last transmission from a mining colony being attacked by the Klingons. All of the whiny little liberals have to listen to the miners plead for help, stating that they are being wiped out. You can hear small children crying in the background. With that move, Captain Lorca completely silences the leftist pacifists on board, and gets them ready to fight. It is always possible the show will become crappy later, but I am enjoying it so far. Here's the scene where the pacifist Admiral (earlier he had implied that those who felt the Klingons were preparing for war must be "racist) learns the hard way that his leftist dogmas resulted on in his defeat and the death of every member of his crew.
My son is 18 and at the front end of generation Z I believe. Subjective observations. He and his friends don't watch TV cable or any of the pay or local channels much. He watches some of the news with me and likes Animal planet, a bit of Discovery and Travel from time to time. These young adults are picky on what movies they go see in the theaters and use Netflicks and other movie type Apps to select any programs they like to watch. Frankly they are more into interacting via Skype and other comms venues to play games and comment on what's going on in the world. Shockingly Gen Z is not the sniveling snowflakes of Millennial gen. They tend to think millenials as stupid and trend conservative in politics. Times may be changing or I have a good "kid" with good friends. :-)
It will last one season maybe two. The promo Orthodoxa posted bored me to death. Almost. Still here.
A high point. I want the rest of them eaten by Klingons. Or to just fall into a sun. They had my hopes up for that in ep 4. Now the sexless black Vulcan woman has discovered the giant worm that can transport her to wondrous new places. A team of Freudian psychiatrists should be dispatched to care for these writers. Now they're ready to introduce a "gay character". Personally, I already thought they were all totally gay. My assumption is that it will be some gay Vulcan dude who becomes the lover of Captain Lorca. They'll get married and we'll have the two gay husbands, leading their all-girl crew on new adventures, fighting their way across the galaxy on the U.S.S. Tampon, boldly going where no man can go without puking his guts out. This thing is so awful that some grinding mustache-to-mustache male sodomy might actually be an improvement. It's beyond dreadful.
Comcast Corp. is trying to restrict cable operators’ sales of low-cost TV service to ensure its regional sports networks don’t lose too many subscribers, according to a trade group of about 750 smaller companies that have taken their complaint to regulators.
#2. To: Tooconservative (#0)
#3. To: Orthodoxa (#2)
They tied this effort to a die-hard franchise (Trekkies are devoted to the shows) and coupled it with a very polished presentation. The hour-long programs are movie quality, they spent between $8-11 million per episode.
#4. To: Tooconservative (#3)
ST:D is a huge disappointment, really pathetic plot and characters. It ruins all the other Star Trek timelines.
#5. To: Tooconservative (#0)
#6. To: Tooconservative, Orthodoxa (#3)
#7. To: Orthodoxa, redleghunter (#4)
(Edited)
Yep, those two shows focused on the two chicks. Episodes 3 and 4 showed that Captain Georgio (the Asian chick) was eaten by the Klingons.
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