AT&T's Cable Business Continues to Be Savaged by Cordcutting

DooKey

DooKey

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AT&T continues to lose subscribers at a rapid pace for it's DirecTV and U-verse services. However, some of the numbers are made up with new subcriptions to DirecTV Now, but overall the net loss of subscribers is 969,000 for the first 9 months of 2017. According to AT&T the loss is because of increased competition for other pay-TV operators and over-the-top services. I don't buy that myself. I believe it's because people are tired of paying too much for a lot of stuff they don't want.

For the fourth quarter, AT&T expects to report a net addition of traditional TV subscribers, CFO John Stephens told investors on the company’s earnings call Tuesday - after a net loss of 969,000 in the first nine months of 2017. Stephens called out AT&T’s bundling strategy with DirecTV, saying wireless-and-TV bundle subscribers have grown 20% since the close of the DirecTV deal, with 6.5 million video customers currently also taking a wireless service.
 
cable plus internet is well over $100 a month. Hulu, Netflix, Prime video, and using my cell as a hotspot ($20) = less than $50/mo
 
Montu said:
For the fourth quarter, AT&T expects to report a net addition of traditional TV subscribers, CFO John Stephens told investors on the company’s earnings call Tuesday - after a net loss of 969,000 in the first nine months of 2017
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so.. for 9 months you have a loss of almost a million subscribers, but in the next 3 months you are suddenly going to have a net gain???

hahahaha

NO
 
Paying hard earned money to be ADVERTISED to is stupid and pointless, and more consumers are realizing they don't have to pay for crap anymore.
 
We are paying an extra $100 a month on top of internet, for non premium stations that are 1/3 commercial breaks, with only a few new episodes a week, other than sports and news.

On another note, why do we have to be bundled with a home phone that cant send /recieve texts?
 
Montu said:
I believe it's because people are tired of paying too much for a lot of stuff they don't want.
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11ty billion channels and little worth watching - cut the cord 4-5 years ago and dont miss it.
 
If and when they ever figure out / let us buy ONLY those channels we actually want... at reasonable prices and with an included DVR so I can fast forward through all the damn commercials.... I will consider rejoining the cable market. It's not likely to happen, so I'll gladly continue to forgo cable - as I have for 8 or 9 years..
 
nightanole said:
We are paying an extra $100 a month on top of internet, for non premium stations that are 1/3 commercial breaks, with only a few new episodes a week, other than sports and news.

On another note, why do we have to be bundled with a home phone that cant send /recieve texts?
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No it gets much worse. On top of what you just listed, I have to rent a cable box that I hate, and I can't just use any tuner I want. You know how many video capture cards I have for my PC that I would love to use to watch TV or DVR it? I can't cause everything is encrypted now and there's no way around it without buying a very expensive adapter specifically made to work with that cable provider, only to have you still rent a card that you stick into it. Then and only then would I feel like I'm getting my moneys worth with cable TV cause with programs like MythTV and MediaPortal so I can watch my content where ever I want. And while they do have Android apps that let you do the same thing, it's extremely limited.

Today I have Optimum coming to my home to switch me from FIOS and their initial offer was $69 for their triple play package. But with taxes and fees and two cable boxes, it comes to $117 per month. I have Emby, Plex, Kodi with Exodus, along with Netflix and Youtube on my TV cause I have hooked up a desktop PC to it. I even have broadcast TV through TVheadEnd to Kodi and my family still watches TV through the cable box. This stuff I have setup works on any Android device, including my cars cause I replace the stereos with android stereos. The cable shit does not.

Believe me I mention the idea of cord cutting but they're too lazy to live without it. I myself never use it, as I would rather torrent an episode I could watch on my legally paid cable service, but it's just much quicker and easier for me to download it.
 
I'd cut the cord, IF I could get over the air TV (then I wouldn't need to steam local channels).
I'd switch to a streaming TV service, except it would likely push me over the cap on my internet service to watch everything over the internet.

Guess I'll just keep calling the cable company every year to cancel, so they will give me a reasonable price.
 
DukenukemX said:
I have to rent a cable box that I hate, and I can't just use any tuner I want. You know how many video capture cards I have for my PC that I would love to use to watch TV or DVR it? I can't cause everything is encrypted now and there's no way around it without buying a very expensive adapter specifically made to work with that cable provider, only to have you still rent a card that you stick into it. Then and only then would I feel like I'm getting my moneys worth with cable TV cause with programs like MythTV and MediaPortal so I can watch my content where ever I want. And while they do have Android apps that let you do the same thing, it's extremely limited.
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I've never rented a cable box.
Years ago we just have analog cable TV. 70 channels, just plug the cable into the TV. Had a couple analog Replay TV boxes for DVR's

Then I bought a new flat panel TV and we could watch some local channels in HD. Again no cable box.
I built a HTPC with a dual tuner card so we could record the HD channels.

Then the cable company dropped the analog channels and digital only. Not a problem since my tuner card could record the digital channels and the TV could receive them directly.

Then they started scrambling all the channels. :mad:
I had to invest in more expensive 4 channel cable card tuner. The extra channels where nice and avoided arguments when more than 2 shows where on at the same time.

Cable card was only $1/month, later the price was raised to $2/month. That's still a reasonable price. (about the only thing the cable company prices reasonably)

We only have 1 TV in the house and we can only watch TV through the HTPC.
However, we can also watch any recorded show on any computer in the house since the folder on the HTPC is shared out.
With a 4TB drive :eek:, we can record a lot of shows.
 
Glad to see they are hemorrhaging customers after the way they overcharged me. Their 6MB DSL was all I could get in my rural location for 8 years and they progressively raised the price with no prior notifications. Every couple months it would creep up a couple dollars. If that wasn't bad enough, they implemented a 150GB cap and then charged me $10 for every 50GB over that. When I complained about the overage charges, they told me to switch to U-Verse which has no caps. I told them I gladly would if I could get it, but I was too far out. I got the distinct impression that they no longer wanted to support their copper in my area and was punishing me for still using it! Earlier this year we finally moved, and now I'm getting 250GB cable for the same price I was paying for 6MB DSL! Come Friday, I'll be able to download the new Wolfenstein in thirty minutes instead of the 24 hours it would take on my old DSL connection!
 
I ditched AT&T U-Verse about a year ago and switched back to Comcast’s Xfinity because it’s a superior product not comparing pricing. Better technology, faster internet and much, much larger On Demand library. For example, my sister still has U-Verse and she can only stream a handful of Game of Thrones episodes starting with season 4. On Xfinity I can watch the entire series.
I switched to U-Verse years ago because of terrible Comcast customer service. After years of dealing with their inferior offerings I switched back to Comcast and their customer service has very much improved since I last subscribed.
 
I'm envisioning the day when they decide to jack the rates of all their internet plans by 100% to compensate for the loss of TV Subscribers. They're gonna get our money one way or another sadly.
 
katanaD said:
so.. for 9 months you have a loss of almost a million subscribers, but in the next 3 months you are suddenly going to have a net gain???

hahahaha

NO
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You missed the *bundling strategy* part. They are following TWC/Charter/whateverassholecablecompany's business model of selling bundles cheaper than straight internet... You want internet, that's 60$ for 10/1. But you can get our bundle that includes 50/5 internet, plus TV/phone for 50$/m the first year.

There you go, they just added a new subscriber, even if they don't watch TV. They've been playing this bullshit game for a couple years now, trying to keep their stranglehold on old business models. Without that, these numbers would be FAR FAR lower.
 
Switched from DirecTV to Xfinity about 3 months ago. Some of this was due to re-negotiating the 1 year internet I had prior, and I exchange speed for TV, but chopping direcTV away was almost a $90 savings.

So yesterday had some time, went on my roof to check things out before the rain starts here and I see this
hfbDBJW.jpg


This satellite dish is maybe 5-7 years old, good thing I cancelled when I did because seriously WTF is this level of corrosion? I still have my original DTV dish on the side of my house (lazy), and it's 20+ years old and hardly any corrosion.
 
AT&T never wants to upgrade their network anywhere or when they do it is to a small exclusive area and then they brag to high heaven about it. We looked at them for U-Verse before we switched over to cable and I'm glad we did. Granted we're only luck the cable company got scared of Google and upgraded but even their old base speeds and TV signal are a lot better than AT&T's offerings.
 
Yeah after 3 years we dropped the TV stations from our Google Fiber service and this was just recently. It started out at $120 total, then over the years increased to $138 dollars total. Then a handful of months ago was getting a rate increase of $20 dollars. So our bill would have been $160 dollars. that's when we said "NO, Hell NO!" ... and cut the cord.

I complained to Google about this but was told it wasn't them raising rates, it was the other guys which I actually believe. I said well, let me cut out all the channels I don't want to watch so I can stop paying for them. I was told then told the companies that sell the channels do not allow this. which again, I believed.

It's a mess. So we cut the cord. I now save $80 a month and still have 1gbit fiber to play with all day everyday. I just turned to one of the many free streaming TV services until they get this sorted out to something that makes sense.
 
Space_Ranger said:
I'm envisioning the day when they decide to jack the rates of all their internet plans by 100% to compensate for the loss of TV Subscribers. They're gonna get our money one way or another sadly.
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AT&T is the only broadband provider in my area. I pay $72/month for 18 mbps down and 1.5 mbps up. That's for internet only.
 
brogers said:
AT&T is the only broadband provider in my area. I pay $72/month for 18 mbps down and 1.5 mbps up. That's for internet only.
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And there will be a day in the not-so-near future, where that will be $144/mo. Sad but its gonna happen..
 
Space_Ranger said:
And there will be a day in the not-so-near future, where that will be $144/mo. Sad but its gonna happen..
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This will be especially true when net neutrality gets flushed down the toilet. Whatever amount they are losing in the cable TV market, just shift the revenue lost to the internet cost for the customers and the books are balanced
 
SixFootDuo said:
Yeah after 3 years we dropped the TV stations from our Google Fiber service and this was just recently. It started out at $120 total, then over the years increased to $138 dollars total. Then a handful of months ago was getting a rate increase of $20 dollars. So our bill would have been $160 dollars. that's when we said "NO, Hell NO!" ... and cut the cord.
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$160 would be a deal where I live.
60mb internet (with a 1TB cap & charges if you go over) and extended basic cable TV runs almost $180. I have to call them and cancel the service every year to get that down to $150
Just threatening to cancel doesn't work any more, I have to tell them I want the cable TV canceled at the end of the month, then they will give me to someone that will make me a better offer.
Meanwhile new customers get a 50% discount to $90+tax, including phone service.

Just a terrible way to run a business. Screw your long term customers, and give huge discounts to the new customers.
Makes me want to cancel service just to spite them.
Lived here for 20 years, before high speed internet was an issue, and when Cable TV was cheap.
Next time I move, the internet provider (hopefully a choice of at least 2) will be at the top of my list.
 
It would help if ISPs and general service providers gave up the mentality that every american household should be willing to pay the sum of $100 for basic services.... that's the magic number some group somewhere decided on over 20 years ago.... and they continue to peddle all their shit packages to that amount.

For over 10 years, every 5 days, I get ever increasingly elaborate ads that push cable, phone, and internet for the magical price of 29.99 each..... it is literally the same ad, every 5 days. I have seen my local service change hands 4 times since I moved here in 99, and no matter who owns it.. it is ALWAYS the exact same bullshit 'offer'.

I'm lucky... I have a grandfathered charter account that gets me the max bandwidth and they can't raise the price without my doing something stupid like being late on the bill or violation of TOS.. I don't use hard-line phone, and don't have cable... so as far as they are concerned I'm a pending acquisition... All they were able to do was limit the number of connecting equipment they allow onto the network.. in this case I'm limited to 2, one is my computer, and the other is USUALLY my laptop... but if I want to connect one of my smart TVs or other internet capable appliances, I actually have to reset my modem and router before they will let me connect (to update firmware etc..)
 
I pay 80 dollars a month for the privilege of watching cable on one tv because it's the only one with a box because all the channels are encrypted.

Fuck you cable co.
 
Boo f*cking hoo. Maybe if the cable companies would give us what we want = let us pick our own channels a la carte.... no no. All you get is a bundle for $150-200 and you'll never watch 90% of the channels.

DirecTV used to have awesome customer service until they merged/bought out by AT&T and then everything went to hell.

FIOS got bought out by Frontier and same thing, prices went up and their customer service and billing went to sh!t. You have to call and threaten to cancel to get any kind of discount, and even if you do it won't be as good as what new subscribers get. Never mind you've been a loyal customer for XYZ years. Oh you say you want internet only? LOL they laugh at you and charge you practically the same price as the bundle you didn't want.

I was so sad when I read google fiber wasn't expanding any more.

How are these companies not considered monopolies? In a lot of areas you only get ONE choice for cable/internet.
 
This is why I love living in a city with 3 different ISPs, compete for my business peons.

Sucks for everyone else though.

$49.99/mo for 200mb with a 1TB cap. Never have had cable/phone at this address and they don't ever call to raise my rates. Had this for over a year now.

We still have cable but we just get it all sneaky like over Rokus.

Isn't directv cable boxes built into new Samsung TVs?
 
While I agree that cost is a major factor, we all need to be prepared for the inevitable subscription increases for streaming media. Content providers will ultimately increase the cost of shows and those increases will be passed on to consumers. This is especially true as more companies enter the streaming space and competition for content increases further.


Burticus said:
Boo f*cking hoo. Maybe if the cable companies would give us what we want = let us pick our own channels a la carte.... no no. All you get is a bundle for $150-200 and you'll never watch 90% of the channels.
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You won't save much from ala carte and for decades it's academics have posited that we'll pay more to get less with ala carte. That's more true now, because while you may not watch Fox News (the most expensive news channel) and I don't watch ESPN, you probably watch other Fox owned channels and I probably watch other ABC owned channels...or maybe it's MSNBC that you avoid like the plague, but you probably watch 1 or more other NBC/Universal channels.

Currently, those are all bundled together and dropping MSNBC would save you a quarter, but if you only get Sci Fi, for example, you'll pay way WAY more for it than you currently do.

I think I might save money from such a scheme, but only because I can live without fox and have almost no use for ESPN (or any other sports channel), but I'm under no illusions that I'd save huge amounts of money, because the fees on the stations I want will likely go up 2-5x once they quit reaching every home (thus they get less monthly fees and advertising revenue would likely drop).

I hope the academics are wrong, but I don't think they are.
 
When cable companies become forced to allow you to pick, every individual channel will cost. It's inevitable that there providers will try to milk as much as possible. $10 per channel on average.. +$40 for this awesome service.
 
I used to have AT&T's U-Verse TV and internet at 1Gbps. While the service was excellent, it was too fucking expensive. The internet alone was $110 a month, which wasn't the problem. The U-Verse IP TV was fantastic, but that nearly cost $200 a month. There were few things available that I couldn't find through Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime. I now buy Season passes via Amazon for shows I don't want to wait on hitting another service and I'm still only paying about $160 a year for everything I want and less than $50 a month for everything else.

U-Verse and other paid TV services simply cost too much and offer little over the other options. Until cable companies get with the times, they will hemorrhage subscribers.
 
brogers said:
AT&T is the only broadband provider in my area. I pay $72/month for 18 mbps down and 1.5 mbps up. That's for internet only.
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Same here but I am paying $80 per month for 1.5mbps down with the most basic local phone and no long distance. 5 miles from town and that is all we get, a few houses past me and you are stuck with dialup.
 
I've been getting calls from Comcast with the offer to up my service. With 2x the speed with some TV cable as well and free rental equipment. The problem is, I don't fuckin trust them.
 
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