“We’ve been here before” stands out among the profound rhetoric that poured into the FCC as it revived its rulemaking exploration of NextGen TV. Those words, from a filing by cable-TV industry groups, captured the frustrating dilemma as regulators try to figure out what to do about the retransmission of ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV signals via cable systems and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs).

More than 1,600 comments (including formal submissions, replies to other parties and ex parte letters) have deluged the Federal Communications Commission since October, when it issued its docket on “Authorizing Permissive Use of the ‘Next Generation’ Broadcast Television Standard,” a spokesperson told TV Tech. The arguments came from “broadcasters, MVPDs, equipment manufacturers and retailer groups, consumer groups/advocates, accessibility groups, policy groups, technology/software providers, content producers, other interested parties and individual consumers,” the spokesperson said.

Few Innovative Ideas
This vast array of opinions refrains the familiar arguments of broadcasters vs. cable operators—with substantial input from equipment and software and content suppliers allied with one side or the other. As is increasingly common in such proceedings, there is also an extensive cadre of public-interest organizations and a dollop of Silicon Valley and wireless communications ventures with an appetite for spectrum.

Relatively few innovative ideas seemed to emerge from the reams of formal filings or in conversations with TV Tech, although analysts offered perspectives on what’s ahead.

The FCC hasn’t set a deadline to resolve the ATSC 3.0 retransmission issue. The agency’s only response to a query about a possible timetable: “This is an active proceeding.”

Independent analysts do not expect a quick resolution. As one inside observer said, “The ball is in FCC Chairman [Brendan] Carr’s court.” Another FCC watcher opined that NextGen TV is not a high priority, despite the agency’s public statements.

To complicate the deliberations, the NextGen TV migration also includes uncertainty about if, when or how to turn off the current ATSC 1.0 signals, which do have must-carry requirements. A slew of other factors, such as the absence of a tuner subsidy (as was available in the digital transition nearly two decades ago), add to the complexity—and are familiar themes in the current examination.

When it opened its latest rulemaking, the FCC said it was seeking “to support and accelerate the nation’s ongoing transition to NextGen TV (also known as ATSC 3.0),” which it claims “represents the future of broadcasting and promises to modernize the nation’s free and local over-the-air television service.”

NAB, ATSC Confront Multiple Challenges
In its filing, the National Association of Broadcasters contends the dissent about must-carry and other familiar issues repeats a “problem [that] is circular.” Stations won’t transmit until carriage is assured and receivers are available, and hardware makers won’t make equipment until rules are in place for distributing the enhanced content, NAB asserted.

Moreover, there is the question about the migration from ATSC 1.0 to 3.0.

“Broadcasters cannot offer the full benefits of Next Gen TV service until they can stop simulcasting in ATSC 1.0,” according to NAB’s filing—but there is widespread concern about the problems that would surface if simulcasting ended without viewers able to receive ATSC 3.0 signals.

NAB urged the FCC to adopt a “date-certain ATSC 1.0 sunset” and to “ensure continued MVPD carriage of stations’ primary ATSC 3.0 signals and associated program-related features.”

In its initial comments to the FCC, NAB insisted “extending must-carry to ATSC 3.0 is essential to an efficient and timely transition.” Broadcasters contend stations should be allowed “to assert mandatory carriage rights for their ATSC 3.0 signals.”

“Broadcasters are not looking to expand must-carry obligations but preserve the same framework that applies today as broadcast technology evolves,” NAB said. “As stations transition to ATSC 3.0, must-carry should continue to attach to a station’s primary programming stream regardless of transmission standard…Technical standards are already in place to support MVPD carriage of ATSC 3.0 signals,” pointing to an ATSC Recommended Practice on Delivery of ATSC 3.0 Services for Redistribution.

Alison Martin, NAB’s vice president of innovation and strategy, said ATSC 3.0 broadcast streams contain content-related data that is essential for viewers and should be subject to must-carry rules. Weather reports, emergency evacuation routes, accessibility information and similar local data must be part of the retransmission package, she said, alluding to the support broadcasters have received from social service agencies.

Martin acknowledged that some of the data ventures that broadcasters envision for ATSC 3.0 fit into what the FCC’s Carr calls “the broadcast internet,” which NAB contends is totally separate from the must-carry issues involved with traditional video programming. She said licensees see services such as BitPath, the wireless platform built on ATSC 3.0 architecture developed by Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group, as an extension of broadcasters’ capacity for data delivery.

“They look at it as a supplement for private wireless networks, so must-carry is not necessary,” she said.

That said, cable retransmission is “the most important thing” to assure broadcasters “are able to innovate” and develop enhancements such as “more immersive audio” and sports enhancements, according to Martin.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee added its endorsement to NAB’s arguments.

Although the group insists that its focus is strictly on technical issues, “any regulatory framework must preserve local broadcasters’ ability to innovate, serve their communities, and fully use ATSC 3.0’s capabilities,” ATSC Vice President of Standards Development Luiz Fausto emphasized.

“The absence of clear rules governing the treatment of ATSC 3.0 services in retransmission scenarios could create uncertainty,” Fausto said. “Conversely, a framework that recognizes the technical realities of ATSC 3.0, including its IP-based architecture and support for new services, can help broadcasters and distribution partners plan investments with greater confidence.”

He stressed: “Cable retransmission is part of a larger transition. ATSC 3.0’s value lies in enabling local broadcasters to use a flexible, scalable, IP-based platform to reach viewers and communities in new ways.”

Opposition From Cable, CE Makers
The “been here before” sneer came from NCTA–The Internet & Television Association on behalf of a cadre of cable TV and broadband providers and their collaborators.

In its filing, the group took aim at NAB’s claim that the cable industry opposes broadcasters’ use of new technologies. “We simply believe that broadcasters’ transition to a new standard should not come at the expense of MVPDs, equipment manufacturers, and consumers, with no guarantee of meaningful benefits,” NCTA said.

“Requiring cable operators to carry ATSC 3.0 signals—despite the substantial costs involved and the uncertain consumer value—would further intensify the serious constitutional concerns associated with the must-carry regime,” NCTA Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications Brian Dietz told TV Tech. “Allowing broadcasters to discontinue ATSC 1.0 transmissions at this stage of the current market-based transition would impose real costs on consumers without any assurance of meaningful benefits.”

The Consumer Technology Association and its equipment-making allies take a similar stance. CTA contends the marketplace is working and a 3.0 tuner mandate is unnecessary. It would be “misguided” to impose a mandate “before broadcasters have adopted and promoted NextGen TV on a nationwide basis, and thus before there is adequate indication of consumer interest or demand,” the group argued.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency’s sole Democrat, said the new rules would trigger “additional thorny questions” over matters such as “encryption technologies [i.e.] digital rights management.”

She voiced concerns about whether audiences “will be able to continue to enjoy free, over-the-air television as they do today.”

“Technology should not be a bottleneck to innovation,” Gomez said, noting that the “significant costs of the transition” will extend to consumers who must pay for new “equipment to…receive the new signal over the air or potentially pay higher prices for new televisions.”

Does Wall Street Care?
Blair Levin, a former FCC chief of staff and longtime telecom policy expert, identified several barriers to the must-carry requirements for NextGen TV.

“The value to consumers is completely different” from the original DTV transition nearly two decades ago, Levin said. “The streaming networks, which didn’t exist then, are a much bigger factor than alternative content at the time of the earlier transition.

“There will be a point when the MVPDs say ‘It’s over,’” Levin predicted, suggesting that the necessity to retransmit broadcast content may become irrelevant.

Levin, now a policy and regulation adviser at New Street Research, headed the team that wrote the U.S. National Broadband Plan (2009-2010) and was deeply involved in the 1996 Telecommunications Act while at the FCC.

Several barriers will impede the must-carry efforts, Levin told TV Tech, especially the lack of a tuner mandate and a specified turn-off date for the current ATSC 1.0 signals. The transition also lacks momentum because there is no pressure from Congress or the White House, he noted.

Would Wall Street care about such a break with historical models?

“Not really,” Levin said, noting that investors now care more about actions “that affect wireless carriers and Silicon Valley,” citing increasing efforts to open up different spectrum bands to auction for nonbroadcast purposes.

From his Washington perspective, Levin noted, “NAB has been unable to elevate this on Carr’s agenda.” He acknowledged that broadcasters have traditionally been big defenders of the First Amendment, but said NextGen TV does not fit into that category.

Focus on Other Opportunities
Rick Ducey, managing director at BIA Advisory Services, expressed optimism about TV stations finding a role in the emerging environment.

“I think broadcasters would still offer enhanced services over-the-air even if MVPDs wouldn’t provide the service enhancements,” Ducey said. “That might both hasten video subscriber drops from MVPDs and drive more OTA viewing.

“Broadcasters are leveraging ATSC 3.0 to create an enhanced consumer OTA experience, and [they] would love to see that experience also offered via MVPD retransmission of must-carry if necessary.”

As for the contentious stances of the major camps in this debate, “Each group has reasons for their positions,” Ducey explained, citing the “new expenses (and new competition) for MVPDs” when NextGen TV services are launched.

Equipment makers are wary of new expenses for an unproven market and don’t like the government telling them what their bill of materials should be, he acknowledged.

Ducey also pointed to concerns raised by the role of “tax-and-waste” groups such as Americans for Tax Reform, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, Citizens Against Government Waste and American Action Forum as new advocates of the FCC’s effort to create industrial policy.

Wall Street is paying attention to the NextGen TV situation, Ducey said.

“They’ve been listening to ATSC 3.0 plans, forecasts, expectations, and market signals for years,” he said, noting that investors are “waiting to see what happens as we get closer.”

Non-media ventures for data delivery provide “very promising signals that there may yet be an emerging and scalable market for broadcasters,” Ducey said, citing ventures such as EdgeBeam Wireless. That joint venture, involving E.W. Scripps, Gray Media, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair, plans to use ATSC 3.0 technology for multipoint data delivery.

Meanwhile, the must-carry diatribes continue with no decision date in sight.

CommScope said it has agreed to sell its Connectivity and Cable Solutions (CCS) segment to Amphenol for about $10.5 billion in cash.

The sale is expected to close within the first half of 2026 subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory and shareholder approvals, CommScope said.

"I’m excited to announce this transformational deal that unlocks equity value, returns cash to our shareholders and strengthens our remaining businesses,” CommScope CEO Chuck Treadway said. “ANS and Ruckus will continue to stay focused on what matters most—our shareholders, customers, employees and other stakeholders. In our ANS and Ruckus businesses, we will continue to develop the next generation of network connectivity. CommScope’s CCS business is positioned to continue to perform well under Amphenol’s leadership.”

CommScope expects net proceeds after taxes and transaction expenses to be about $10 billion. After repaying all debt, redeeming all preferred equity (held by investment firm Carlyle) and adding modest leverage on the remaining business, CommScope said it will have significant excess cash that it will distribute to shareholders as a dividend within 60 to 90 days following the closing.

The exact amount and timing of the dividend will be determined by the cmpany after closing and after taking into account all relevant factors.

More information is available here.

SEATTLE—U.S. households spend $164 billion annually on cable and internet services, which represents approximately 4% of the total $4.55 trillion spent on household bills each year, according to a new study released by Doxo.

Through a statistical analysis of actual household consumer payments across 97% of U.S. zip codes, the doxoINSIGHTS “Cable & Internet Market Size and Household Spend Report for 2025” found 73% of U.S. households pay a cable and internet bill, spending a median amount of $121 per month, or $1,452 per year. When factoring in market share, this amounts to a median annual spend of $1,063 per U.S. household.

The doxoINSIGHTS analysis is based on actual household payments for cable and internet bills nationwide (bill payments on Doxo span more than 97% of U.S. ZIP codes) to determine the overall market size. The report details household spending, the percentage of households paying each bill, and median monthly and annual bill costs by state, as well as in the 50 largest U.S. cities and those with populations of 40,000 or more.

“High-speed connectivity is more essential than ever for consumers—driven by remote work, streaming, and smart home innovations—and is a foundational household expense,” Doxo co-founder and CEO Steve Shivers said. “As we look ahead, we anticipate increases in cable and internet pricing may occur for consumers due to potential tariff impacts on cable and broadband equipment. However, some of this is expected to be counterbalanced by increased competition from wireless broadband options.”

doxoINSIGHTS utilizes aggregate, anonymized bill payment data to offer a detailed analysis of actual consumer payment data on a rolling 12-month basis with monthly updates. For the latest analysis of U.S. household bill expenses, visit doxo.com/w/explore and select a state, to view state, county, and city data.

Key findings of the report include:

• Total Cable and Internet Consumer Market Size: $164 billion
• Median Monthly Cable and Internet bill payment: $121
• Share of Households: 73% of U.S. households pay Cable & Internet bills
• Share of Household Bill Pay Expense: Cable & Internet bills amount to 4% of consumers' household bill pay costs

Top five states with the highest cable and internet bills:

• Delaware, with a monthly media bill of $157 (70% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,313.
• Rhode Island, with a monthly media bill of $150 (61% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,091.
• South Dakota, with a monthly media bill of $147 (75% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,315
• Tennessee, with a monthly media bill of $143 (76% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,310.
• Alaska. with a monthly media bill of $143 (71% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,211.

Top five largest U.S. cities with the highest cable and internet bills:

• Pittsburgh, with a monthly media bill of $221 (57% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,508
• Milwaukee. with a monthly media bill of $192 (83% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,913.
• Denver, with a monthly media bill of $186 (70% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,492.
• Portland, Oregon, with a monthly media bill of $170 (72% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,463
• Charlotte, North Carolina, with a monthly media bill of $165 (81% of households have a cable and internet bill) and the annual spend for those services is $1,599.

For more information, or to view the entire report, visit https://www.doxo.com/w/insights/.

NEW YORK—A new report from S&P Global Ratings highlights ongoing problems in the linear TV business with a prediction that its decline in the U.S. is “irreversible” and plans by Comcast and other to spin off TV networks “face significant challenges amid secular declines and dis-synergies.”

Last year, Comcast announced plans to spin off its linear TV networks. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery is in the process of restructuring into two divisions, separating its linear networks from its studio and streaming operations to better position the company for acquisitions or potential mergers.

“Linear TV’s decline in the U.S. is irreversible, but that there is no immediate cliff,” S&P Global noted in its report. “We expect the decline will be a steady one that will take years to reach its final conclusion."

The report also found losses from cord-cutting are moderating, but affiliate license fees will decline by "3% and 7%, depending on the network portfolio.”

In addition, “advertising, the other key revenue stream supporting linear TV, will decline more precipitously than affiliate fees as audience ratings are eroding quicker than the rate of cord-cutting,” the analysts said, with general entertainment networks feeling the worst impact.

They also argued that “sports-focused networks will hold up better (but still decline), with audience ratings and prices for ad inventory stabilizing or even modestly growing for some sports, particularly the National Football League. [Yet] … even the NFL isn't immune from ratings declines—audience ratings for the 2024 NFL regular season declined by 2.2%.”

Spinning off linear networks would create other challenges by separating them from the studios that produce content, leaving the networks vulnerable to rising programming prices. “Ultimately, the networks would just be distribution vehicles; that is, middlemen that package content licensed from third parties into a linear stream and sell those linear streams to the pay-TV distributors,” leaving them “vulnerable to termination of content rights agreements,” the report said.

“The media companies are in a no-win situation,” the analysts concluded. “Every day the companies hold onto their linear TV networks, they become less valuable.”

The networks, though, also produce a significant portion of overall cash flow, and media companies “still depend heavily on the cash flow from their linear TV networks to help fund their other businesses, make investments, and pay down debt,” S&P said. “This dependence will decline over time as the linear TV business continues shrinking and the streaming segment grows scale and profitability, but for now, we view the linear TV businesses as essential to our current credit ratings on these companies.”

A new survey from cordcutting.com concludes that the majority of cable and satellite TV customers think they’re wasting their money on their subscriptions, based on the paltry number of channels they view. 

The survey, the website’s first since 2019, showed that these pay-TV subscribers have access to 190 channels but regularly only watch 15 of them. As expected broadcast networks and ESPN came out on top of the popularity poll. It also showed that the average cable TV monthly bill is grown from $96 to $147 since 2019, an increase of 52%. 

That rise has likely been driven by the continued increase in cordcutting, prompting pay-TV operators to increase prices in response; as well as increases in broadcast and sports rights costs. 

The survey also showed that the share of Americans watching cable or satellite TV has plunged by more than 20 percentage points from 2015 to 2021, with another 4.7 million households cutting the cord in 2021 alone. Meanwhile, streaming has become more popular—despite Netflix’s recent woes, the industry is up as a whole with spending on streaming growing 20 percent in 2021.

But when it comes to pay-TV subscriptions, the survey showed that nearly two out of every three subscribers think they’re not getting a good deal and 45% of cable TV subscribers saying that they would cancel their television packages if they weren't tied to their internet service provider.

In terms of the number of channels watched, the survey showed that out of the average lineup of 190 channels overall, subscribers watch only 15. By paying $147 per month to watch only 15 channels, the survey concluded that that averages out to $9.57 per channel watched, which rivals the average fee for an OTT streaming service. This results in an annual average of  more than $1,600 “wasted” on subscription fees, up from $1,088 in 2019 according to cordcutting.com.

The cost is even higher for the many viewers who watch fewer stations—less than 50%percent of pay-TV subscribers regularly watch more than 10 channels, and less than a quarter regularly watched 20 or more channels in their subscription.

Cordcutting.com said that many pay-TV subscribers continue their subscriptions out of habit and the lack of knowledge over their viewing options. 

“For less than half of the price of the average cable or satellite subscription, customers could obtain basic subscriptions to most major streaming services (and for a few dollars more, they can access ad-free versions),” said Stephen Lovely, cordcutting.com managing editor in a blog post. “Some viewers resist completely cutting the cord out of unfounded fear that they'll lose live television access. In reality, the major broadcast channels are free with a digital antenna, Paramount+ (CBS) and Peacock (NBC) carry live network streams, and other platforms (Apple TV+, Prime Video) are already adding live sports to compete with ESPN.

"With streaming options providing nearly all the services as cable TV at more affordable prices, it’s hard to understand why anyone stays with cable or satellite packages," Lovely added. "Perhaps that’s why industry experts expect the number of cable TV subscribers to soon drop to 50 million unless rising streaming prices drive a resurgence.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Harmonic has announced that Philippines-based service provider Parasat Cable TV is modernizing its broadband operations with Harmonic's CableOS Cloud-Native Core Platform, further adding to Harmonic's growing roster of cable customers in the Asia-Pacific region. 

"Harmonic's CableOS Platform gives us a flexible, cost-efficient and easy-to-deploy option to simplify our DOCSIS network and operations," said Elpidio M. Paras, CEO at Parasat Cable TV. "With Harmonic's state-of-the-art technology, we can confidently address network traffic spikes and meet the growing customer demand for increased bandwidth, ensuring the highest level of satisfaction for our subscribers."

Parasat Cable TV is replacing a legacy and proprietary Huawei Remote MAC-PHY solution with Harmonic's standards-based distributed access architectures (DAA) solution that includes the CableOS Platform and Reef DAA shelves. 

The high-density Reef DAA shelves offer flexibility to handle bandwidth scaling at a low total cost of ownership, Harmonic said. Parasat Cable TV can now address capacity issues with greater agility and cost efficiency. 

As a multi-access provider edge solution, the CableOS Platform also creates a path for Parasat Cable TV to deploy outdoor DAA nodes alongside the Reef DAA shelves and extend the deployment to FTTH using Harmonic's virtualized PON solution.

"Demand for bandwidth-intensive services in the Asia-Pacific region is fueling tremendous growth, so operators are in need of the right partners able to provide them with advanced, high-performance and multi-access edge solutions," said Gil Katz, senior vice president, cable access business operations at Harmonic. "Our CableOS platform leads the industry because it provides operators worldwide, and in the Asia-Pacific region, with an agile, software-based solution to transform their networks, adapt to fast-evolving market conditions and deliver the next generation of services."

Harmonic completed the deployment at Parasat Cable TV in under four weeks through collaborative teamwork between the operator and the company's professional services team.

Harmonic's CableOS Platform powers more than 3 million cable modems for a growing number of innovative operators worldwide, including the largest cable operators in North America and Europe, and leading service providers in Latin America and Asia, Harmonic reported. 

Further information about Harmonic and the company's solutions is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

The ramifications of COVID-19 have been felt throughout the industry—from changing production workflows to accommodate social distancing requirements to modifying transmitters and RF plants to roll out NextGen TV service.

The ripples of the pandemic also have impacted cable TV—a slice of the industry that largely depends on truck rolls to bring new subscribers online. Concern over safety and social distancing for both customers and employees alike has led to some changes in business as usual, says MOBITV President and COO Bill Routt.

MOBITV’s app for MVPDs is helping cable operators circumvent COVID-19 concerns by making self-provisioning possible, win back cord-cutters and upsell existing broadband customers on TV services, he says. 

In this interview, Routt discusses the impact of COVID-19 on cable operators and customers, the company’s strategy to assist MVPDs, how cable operators are holding up to OTT competitors like Hulu and what the future holds for cable TV operators.

(An edited transcript.)

TVTech: How has COVID-19 affected your MVPD customers, and has the MOBITV app-based solution addressed the concerns of consumers and operators about minimizing exposure risk?

Bill Routt: Prior to the pandemic we were seeing installations done two ways. You know we still have about 128 or 129 MVPD customers, and +90% of them are using our fast solution.

It can be installed one of two ways. The cable companies, the MVPDs, can continue to roll trucks, and a lot of them do that. They do that for internet installations, and when they're there, they'll offer either an Android setup box, a managed box or Fire TV Stick, or some streaming device and try to upsell video.

But it's an app-based service, so every one of these operators has a branded app in the Google Play Store, Amazon, Roku and iTunes. So customers can just self-provision when they decide to sign up for cable service. All they really have to do is download the app from the streaming device they're using or smart TV and log in with their credentials. Then they are up and running.

So as you can imagine, we were seeing a lot of operators still installing the truck roll way. Although we're starting to see some of them significantly reducing that number of truck rolls for video installation during the pandemic.

Customers don't want people in their homes, and a lot of cable companies are slowing down; they're hesitant, or they have a lot of protocols before they send install teams into people’s homes.

So, we're seeing an uptick in the self-provisioning. That has been really key for us because it helps our customers continue to grow even when that normal sort of installation channel—if you want to call it that—is impacted by COVID. 

TVT: If the strategy is to send the MVPD customer to an app store to enable MVPD service to prevent possible exposure of workers and customers to COVID-19, doesn’t that make it more likely for customers to purchase VOD OTT services as well and in a way make it harder for your customers to sell premium channels?

BR: If you think about it, our customers have an advantage over a lot of the OTT services. It’s true there are disadvantages, too. They don't have the marketing budget that YouTube TV has. That could be the understatement of the year so far.

But what they do have is a brand and brick and mortar, and they have existing relationships with these customers. So when I say that these guys are benefiting from self-install, I don't mean they're benefiting from a customer somewhere in the Midwest searching through the app store to find their branded cable app to download. 

I think it's more the case that the customer makes a phone call, wants to subscribe to cable television service, or they get an outreach from the cable company that they're using for their broadband already.

They're told, “Hey, you can have this TV service. It's got a full lineup, and you go to whatever app store you want and you search for it by name and download it.”

So, I think that they're not competing head to head from a discovery perspective in the Play Store. If they were, they definitely would be at a disadvantage. But they have an existing customer relationship and they are building that relationship with the customer. They have a broadband relationship with that customer. So they're able to message and direct that customer to the Play Store.

They can leverage that existing relationship to kind of bypass or work around any discovery challenges inside an app store with 100,000 apps.

PLUS: Pay-TV Finds Momentum via vMVPDs, Per LRG

TVT: Are MVPDs seeing the time their customers watch TV grow due to the tendency to stay home and avoid crowds during the pandemic?

BR: Yes. That’s one of the advantages MVPDs have, engagement with the viewer. Prior to the pandemic, people were watching more than eight hours a day on average, right? That’s a tremendous amount of engagement. That obviously has implications for advertising.

With the pandemic, that has increased. It spiked way up to almost 10 hours a day. It kind of leveled off over the summer at about nine-and-a-half-hours a day of viewing. So, MVPDs are seeing even more engagement, which is not a surprise in this kind of shelter-in-place world we’re in right now. 

TVT: What about the 800 lb. gorilla in the room, the OTT alternatives to MVPDs like Hulu, YouTube TV and Sling TV?  Are cord-cutters and cord-nevers continuing to take away big bites from your customers’ potential subscriber universe?

BR: Let's roll back the clock a year, and look at the price differences between the cable lineup and an over-the-top streaming lineup. I think there was a time when there was a concern about the price difference. Where YouTube TV, Sling TV or Hulu were once less expensive than a lot of the MVPD subscription services, that's becoming less and less true. I think that gap has essentially gone away.

That has been a help, and we are seeing that our customers are winning back the cord-cutters. As many as 15% of the customers they are adding are cord-cutters and they are getting a little bit more than that from the broadband-only [customers]. Probably a lot of that is related to the parity in pricing. 

I think it is also driven by—as silly as it sounds—HDMI switching for legacy cable companies. If you are delivering your service over multicast QAM and a set-top box, unless you are Comcast, there’s nothing else on that HDMI input. When you want to search for a program like “The Mandalorian,” you have to switch over HDMI inputs to your streaming device, open up Disney+, watch the show there and then switch back.

So, by having a true streaming service [powered by MOBITV’s app], you’ve got this MVPD app that sits on your Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick or whatever, and that app sits right next to whatever other complementary services you have, whether it’s Disney+, Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime.

The other benefit is that search is now handled by the operating system on all these devices so when you press the microphone button on the remote and search for a program, the operating system will surface all the services you have installed and where that content can be viewed.

TVT: Where will the cable TV business be by the end of 2021?

BR: People want their MVPD lineup. From an industry perspective, cable still pays the bills. 

The engagement is just so high. The revenue is phenomenal for the content owners, obviously. I don’t see that changing in the immediate future. 

Customers are very satisfied with the full lineup of entertainment, local and sports on their pay-TV app, but that’s not necessarily sufficient. They also want original content, which is driving subscriptions and a lot of churn as they subscribe to a service to watch one show, cancel the subscription when it’s over and move on to the next service and show. 

Whatever they decide the complementary services are that satisfy their interests, I think they want them all in one spot so they can easily move back and forth.

Last month’s cancellation of the 2020 NAB Show put on hold the discussion of topics important to television broadcasters. Among them is 5G.

What impact will 5G wireless service, with its massive data throughput, have on the distribution of video content—the life blood of broadcasters? What about other traditional video content distributors like cable TV?

The NAB Show program offered sessions to explore these and other 5G-related topics that one day will affect television broadcasters. Andy Shenkler, chief product and technology officer at Deluxe Entertainment, was scheduled to discuss 5G during an NAB Show session called “5G Is Coming, Whether We’re Ready or Not.”

In lieu of the session, Shenkler offers his thought on the impact of 5G on traditional media in this Q&A.

TV Technology: From a high level, how do you see 5G shaping up as a viable distribution medium for video content?

Andy Shenkler: Widespread adoption of 5G holds many dazzling promises, from making VR and AR experiences mainstream, to driving unprecedented spending in mobile advertising. In the short term, however, the most immediate benefit to media and entertainment companies will be the dramatic performance improvements that 5G will create in mobile video consumption.

A consumer trying to stream a video on a 5G-enabled iPad or Android phone will see a ~50x improvement over 3G or 4G. The days of buffering and waiting will be gone. Viewers will no longer drop off due to frustrations with the technology, driving audience demand for mobile video viewing due to 5G’s higher throughput speeds and extremely low latency.

Those pristine and lightning fast video viewing experiences for the end customer will provide a foundation for audience growth in the other more immersive applications.

TVT: Is this a threat, opportunity or both for traditional video news, sports and entertainment distributors like call letter TV stations, station groups and TV networks? Can cable make it, or will 5G accelerate cord cutting?

AS: 5G will accelerate cord cutting, and that is most certainly a threat to the traditional cable companies. We will also start to see growth in fixed wireless access (FWA) at home, with 5G being used as the primary home internet connection bundled with TV. 

You’re starting to see companies like Verizon offer these 5G home services. Adoption there will be slower due to the infrastructure costs involved in building it out, but once viewers are able to get the same connection at home with 5G that they can with broadband, and also carry that outside the home, that will be formidable competition for the traditional players.

 Whether 5G will be an opportunity or a threat to traditional broadcasters and station groups will be largely up to them. 5G will allow broadcasters to do IP-based delivery of video and data content, which makes better use of their spectrum.

Broadcast spectrum is a finite and coveted resource. There are standards in development like ATSC 3.0, which in essence allow a greater amount of content to be transmitted in the same spectrum compared with the current system. 

There are also ways to make broadcast transmissions more efficient, avoiding the types of point-to-point challenges of wirelessly delivering video, audio, photos, games and other bandwidth-hungry media today. If broadcasters can plan for these technological efficiencies around their coveted spectrum and figure out how to deliver the right type of content in the smartest method, they have a great opportunity to succeed with 5G.  

They can build a better TV experience for viewers on TVs and mobile devices. People can receive their broadcasts in richer fashion with targeted ads or interactive features that make that business model very compelling for brands.

TVT: What was the main message you hoped those attending your session at the now-cancelled 2020 NAB Show would walk away with? 

AS: If we want to learn from the past, we would be smart as an industry to prepare our business models and take steps now so that we can reap the benefits of a 5G world down the line. 

Just like OTT, 5G impacts may be small at first, but they will build until one day suddenly entire legacy businesses are at risk. It is clear that consumers want richer, high-quality video content for mobile delivery. They want to watch or play or immerse themselves in media experiences wherever they are and not be frustrated with the tech behind the scenes.  

Content owners and distributors must embrace truly digital cloud-based workflows that prepare content for augmented broadcast or OTT over 5G. Hyper-targeted advertising, AR/VR and truly immersive two-way content are areas we can start to plan for as we look at distribution technologies and how we can be ready to deliver.

WASHINGTON--The FCC has announced deadlines for the NPRM it issued last month that changes the method for cable and satellite TV providers to notify broadcast television stations from paper to electronic delivery.

Deadline for comments is Sept. 4, 2019 and reply comments, Sept. 19.

On July 10, the commission approved an NPRM that would allow cable and satellite TV providers to notify broadcast TV stations about must-carry or retransmission consent issues by email rather than traditional certified mail. The move was supported by most TV lobbyists, including the NAB, APTS and NCTA-The Internet and Television Association.

The NPRM also seeks comments on whether electronic notification should also be extended to LPTV without Class A status and certain noncommercial translator stations that don’t have FCC public record requirements. 

Stand 14.D10, IBC 2019, RAI, Amsterdam: Intinor Technology, Sweden’s leading developer of products and solutions for high quality video over IP networks, will launch a newly combined router panel and video mixer for the highly portable Direkt link remote production backpack at IBC 2019.

Intinor’s Direkt router is used by major broadcast and production companies for video switching and mixing on the fly, and with the new router panel and video mixer combination the unit can provide GFX-overlays and PiP.

Direkt link can send video streams to multiple receivers, including Intinor’s own receivers, designed primarily for cable TV or channel control rooms; streaming servers for web TV; DTV boxes for OTT; PCs running VLC; and receivers from other manufactures.

Intinor CEO Roland Axelsson said, “The flexibility and versatility of our Direkt link range just become even more so with our new router panel and video mixer integration, and we are delighted to featuring it at Europe’s premiere broadcast technology showcase.”

The new Direkt link backpack system configuration can be adjusted using the new router display and keypad, or from a web-interface. The interface provides the ability to build profiles and adjust parameters for each broadcast location. Those profiles can contain and retain information on the network, content destination, and video-quality. The Direkt link system can store a broadcast on a USB stick for later use in on-demand or other video applications.

The unit will also have a new NDI input, which further expands Intinor’s collaboration with NewTek and other leading NDI developers.

At IBC, Intinor will also introduce ‘Direkt link tower’, a computer chassis that includes the powerful Direkt link encoder. The tower is pre-configured to esports-mode, Intinor's performance level 6 (x264 preset “SLOW”). This is the same encoding performance that is used worldwide for major esports tournaments like DreamHack, Blast Pro Series, PGL, Gfinity and many more.

For more information, visit www.intinor.com

###

About Intinor
Intinor develops its own products and comprehensive solutions for high quality video over IP networks. With solutions for contribution, as well as for distribution and web TV, Intinor has customers ranging from small production to major television channels. Intinor also work as consultants with product development and has extensive experience in developing custom-designed systems to meet specific needs. For more information, visit www.intinor.com

Company Contact:
Daniel Lundstedt, Marketing Coordinator
+46 (0) 90-349 39 07
+46 (0) 70-148 46 68
daniel.lundstedt@intinor.se

Media Contact:
Jennie Marwick-Evans
Manor Marketing
jennie@manormarketing.tv
+44 (0) 7748 636171

CHICAGO—Results of a December 2018 survey released this week by Waterstone Management Group paint a rather dire picture for the cable TV industry: 59 percent of subscribers nationally have cancelled their plans and another 29 percent are considering it.

“I think it is pretty obvious that cable TV is going to go away, at least in the form that we’ve known it,” says Andy Kerns, creative director of Digital Third Coast and primary researcher on Waterstone’s cord-cutting survey. ”I think the story right now is about how quickly it is happening.”

Idaho registered the highest percentage of people who have cut the cord at 72 percent, followed by Kentucky at 70 percent, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona at 69 percent and South Dakota at 68 percent.

The states with the lowest percentage of unsubscribes include Virginia at 51 percent, Alabama and Massachusetts at 50 percent, Pennsylvania, Hawaii and Connecticut at 49 percent, Mississippi at 47 percent and New Jersey at 36 percent, the survey found.

Seven states had too few responses to be included in the analysis, according to Waterstone. They included Louisiana, Alaska, Montana, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wyoming and North Dakota.

Although the survey didn’t examine why people are cutting the pay TV cord, Kerns identified price and original content as likely reasons. “Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services were initially competitive on price,” he says. “But they have also been investing in an incredible amount of original content. That seems to have accelerated this battle with traditional cable.”

The survey also did not ask about the efforts of traditional pay TV providers to preserve subscribers by offering their own SVOD services.

For the survey, Waterman contacted 5,000 people age 18 to 69 across the United States via Mechanical Turk, an Amazon-powered survey platform. Respondents were paid to participate.

More information is available on the Waterstone Management Group website.

MONTEREY, CA.–Despite increasing uptake rates by so-called “skinny bundles,” cable and satellite operators continue to see declining subscription rates to their main pay-TV services, according to Kagan.

According to the media research Kagan’s Q2 2018 U.S. Multichannel Subscriber Report, cable, direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and telco multichannel sectors combined lost 860,640 video subscribers in the three-month period ended June 30, 2018, ending the quarter at 92.2 million, down from 98 million the same period a year ago.

While the combined total was less than the loss of 976,000 video subscribers during the same quarter a year ago, DBS logged its second largest quarterly decline on record, losing a combined 478,000 customers, while cable logged its largest second-quarter video subscriber drop since 2015, bringing year-to-date losses to 685,790. The telco video segment improved dramatically during the period however, reducing its losses to just 56,000, or just a fraction of the pattern of quarterly losses established in the last two years, according to Kagan.

The picture for pay-TV operators improves, however, when taking their OTT-based “skinny bundles” into account. DIRECTV NOW and DISH’s Sling TV reduced the quarterly subscription losses by approximately 45 percent, raising the residential figure to 93.5 million.

The residential multichannel penetration rate stood at 75% as of June 30 when including the virtual multichannel services owned by AT&T and DISH Network (DIRECTV NOW and Sling TV).

The top U.S. pay TV providers turned in an improved Q1 2018, but the results weren’t good enough to avoid a net subscriber loss, according to a new analysis from Leichtman Research Group.  

The largest MVPDs, representing about 95 percent of the market, shed about 305,000 net video subs in Q1 2018, compared to a pro forma loss of about 515,000 subs in the year-ago period, LRG said.

“Traditional” pay TV services, excluding internet-delivered services, lost 710,000 subs in Q1, improved from a year-ago loss of 780,000. Among individual market segments, the top six U.S. cable operators lost about 285,000 video subs in Q1, widened from a loss of 115,000 a year earlier.

Dish Network and DirecTV lost 375,000 satellite TV subs in Q1, versus a year-ago loss of 340,000. The top telco TV providers lost just 50,000 video subs in the period, improving greatly from losses of 325,000 subs in Q1 2017. LRG said Q1 marked the fewest sub losses in that segment in any quarter since Q3 2015.

Read: Millions Flee Pay-TV; Revenues Slide, Say Researchers]

Dish’s Sling TV and AT&T’s DirecTV Now, the top publicly reporting OTT TV service providers, combined to tack on 405,000 subs in Q1, up from 265,000 net adds in Q1 2017, LRG said.

With all segments factored in, the largest U.S. pay TV providers now account for 91.9 million subs – 47.8 million for the top cable MSOs, 31.1 million for satellite TV, 9.2 million, and 3.8 million for Sling TV and DirecTV Now.

Recent estimates that include subs for other OTT TV services such as YouTube TV, fuboTV, Hulu live TV, PlayStation Vue and Philo, put the virtual MVPD sub total at north of 5 million.

“The number of pay TV subscribers for the top providers peaked six years ago. Since 1Q 2012, top providers have lost about 3.4 million total pay-TV subscribers,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, said in a statement. “Since the industry’s peak, traditional services have lost about 7.2 million subscribers, while the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered services gained about 3.8 million subscribers.”

NEW YORK—The average household is paying nearly double in subscription costs to pay TV since 2000, representing an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 74 percent, according to Kagan.

When figuring in 2017 inflation adjusted dollars, legacy pay TV homes in 2000 were spending an average of $698.30 per year for multichannel service over telco, cable and satellite; by 2017, this figure had risen to $1,211.58, representing 3.3 percent CAGR. The real U.S. average income, in comparison, advance at a 0.3 percent CAGR, growing just 4.7 percent over the 17 year period, Kagan said.

The increases have not come without service enhancements, however, including a larger number of networks, and advanced services such as VOD, DVR services and improved user interfaces and resolution.

Kagan noted that multichannel revenue per subscriber “varies widely across the income spectrum.” In areas where the mean income was below $49,999, the multichannel penetration rate was 71.2 percent compared to a national average of approximately 74 percent as of Q4 2017. In areas where the average household incomes were more than $200K, penetration stood at nearly 83 percent, and in areas where average household incomes were between $50K and $100K, (the majority of households, at 73.5 percent of the total) penetration came in at 72.5 percent.

To add perspective on the impact that rising Pay-TV subscription rates have on household incomes, Kagan calculated U.S. multichannel purchasing power based on 2017 inflation-adjusted annual multichannel average revenue per user (ARPU) and average income figures, using 2000 as the base year. Based on this, Kagan developed an "affordability index" that illustrates the sharp decline in affordability, starting at 10 in 2000 and declining from then on, but relatively flat since 2012. 

Kagan blamed “the eroding multichannel affordability” partly to the growing popularity of OTT services such as Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix, as well as the emergence of “skinny bundles” from DISH and ATT’s DirecTV. 

Over the top access revenue topped $11.9 billion in 2017, a 41 percent increase over the prior year and is expected to maintain that momentum for the foreseeable future, according to a Convergence Research Group study, The Battle for the American Couch Potato: OTT, TV, Online.

According to Convergence, OTT revenue (based on 55 providers, led by Netflix) is expected to reach $16.6 billion in 2018, a 40 percent gain over 2017, and $25.6 billion in 2020.

At the same time, U.S. cable, satellite and telco TV access revenue grew just 1 percent in 2017, to $107.6 billion, and should slip in the coming years. Convergence estimates that traditional pay TV revenue should dip to $107.4 billion in 2018 and $106.9 billion by 2020.

Pay TV lost an estimated 3.66 million subscribers in 2017, up from 2.2 million in 2016, and should lose another 3.72 million in 2018, according to Convergence. The growth in OTT services – Convergence gathered data from about 55 different over-the-top providers for the study – is again the culprit.

[Read: Younger Viewers Gravitating To OTT TV Services: Study]

Convergence estimates 32.13 million US households, or 26.1 percent of homes, did not have a traditional TV subscription at the end of 2017, up from 27.56 million (22.6% of homes) in 2016. The researcher forecasts 36.76 million (29.6 percent of homes) will not have a “The gloves are off,” Convergence said in its report, adding that the industry is being transformed by deep-pocketed tech players like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Netflix who appear to be willing to spend billions of dollars on original, licensed and sports content.

“We expect especially for the US market going forward fewer content deals between programmers and independent OTT providers: 2017 saw Disney choose not to renew with Netflix and embrace OTT, HBO not renew with Amazon in the US, Hulu (which is spending more on content on a per US subscriber basis than Amazon or Netflix) continue to bolster its offerings compete & more directly against TV access providers, and A+E, AMC, Discovery, Scripps, and Viacom back & supply Philo,” the report said.

Traditional pay TV providers have managed to keep revenue growing mainly through price increases, but that isn’t expected to last. Convergence estimates that TV access revenue will decline going forward. And programmers, who have relied on rising affiliate fees and advertising rates in the past are preparing for the new age of skinny bundles and lower monthly price points by going direct to consumer themselves.

“Programmers have read the writing on the wall and have already gone, or are in process of going direct to consumer, again at competitive price points,” according to the report.

At the same time, while cable continues to expert its dominance in the broadband arena, its growth is slowing too. Convergence estimates that about 2.33 million residential broadband subscribers were added in the U.S. in 2017 down from 2.66 million additions in 2016, while revenue rose 7 percent $56.8 million. Convergence estimates that broadband additions will grow slightly to 2.57 million in 2018, and revenue will rise 6 percent to $60.5 billion.

This article originally appeared in Broadcasting & Cable. 

LONDON--Fears among pay-TV providers about the growing trend of cord cutting are being offset by a new phenomenon in which viewers are adding OTT services on top of existing pay-TV subscriptions, even when they spend more overall.

Paywizard, a London-based subscription, billing and customer relationship management (CRM) specialist calls these subscribers, “pay-TV polygamists,” which it details in its report “Show the Love with Customer Experience.” The report adds that the cord-cutting trend can also be curtailed by providing better customer service.

The firm surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers nationwide and found that 21-percent of cord-cutter households now only subscribe to OTT services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu as their sole pay-TV package. But the research finds that twice as many—or 41-percent of households—are a growing force of “pay-TV polygamists” that subscribe to both traditional pay-TV and OTT services. And, 25 percent of those surveyed cancelled a pay-OTT service during the previous 12 months due to a poor customer experience.

[Read: Millions Flee Pay-TV; Revenues Slide, Say Researchers]

“The U.S. is the most advanced TV market in the world with high pay-TV adoption, and the research signals that there is a real opportunity for operators to prevent cord-cutting and win over new subscribers, as the figures also show consumers are willing to spend more overall on pay-TV if the customer relationships are managed effectively,” said Bhavesh Vaghela, Paywizard’s Chief Executive

The research concludes that failing to provide a consistently positive customer experience has real and serious ramifications. In fact, 30 percent of U.S. pay-TV households experienced a negative interaction or issue with at least one of their TV service providers over the previous 12 months, and 42 percent of those cancelled their service. While just 24 percent of U.S. survey respondents felt their issues were handled effectively, the remaining 76 percent felt the interaction damaged their view of the brand.

As the multisubscription customer base grows, “operators need to differentiate themselves to win and retain customers,” Vaghela said, “The key is improved interactions, guided by data-led insight at every stage of the customer journey, so that marketing is more precisely targeted, processes streamlined, recommendations better informed, and each engagement is more personalized.”

Paywizard will be at NAB Show 2018 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, booth SU10306CM. 

PARISAND SAN JOSE, CALIF.—After years of wrangling with investors about the future of its set top business, Cisco has announced that it is selling the division to Technicolor for $600 million in stock and cash. The deal will make Paris-based Technicolor one of the world’s largest providers of set-top boxes (also referred to as “gateways” or “customer premises equipment”), with a market share of 15 percent.

Under the terms of the agreement, upon the closing of the transaction, Cisco will receive approximately €413 million ($450 million) in cash and approximately €137 million ($150 million) in newly issued Technicolor shares, subject to certain adjustments provided for in the agreement. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year or by the first quarter of 2016.

With this acquisition, Technicolor will be shipping more than 60 million devices annually, with an installed base of 290 million set-top boxes and 185 million gateways in more than 100 countries. It is expected to generate €3 billion (approx. $3.3 billion) of pro-forma revenues in 2014, doubling Technicolor’s revenues in the Connected Home segment. Technicolor and Cisco will form a “strategic partnership” to develop and deliver new devices that will extend the two company’s platforms into additional communications devices based on IoT (Internet of Things) technology.

“The strategic relevance of video to every consumer, business, city and country around the world is only growing, and the market is moving rapidly," said John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco. “This is the right time and we have the right company in Technicolor to drive the future of the CPE business to deliver what our customers and partners need, today and into the future. At Cisco, we are prioritizing our investments to deliver on our strategy of video in the cloud, and will partner with Technicolor to position the CPE business and employees for future success.”

Technicolor’s acquisition is the latest move in an industry that has seen new entrants come and go in recent years. The market has experienced a decrease in set-top box shipments amid growing interest in cord cutting and OTT services such as Apple TV and Roku, as well as a decline in pay-TV subscriptions worldwide. Ten years ago, Cisco entered the business with the acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta, but in recent years, investors and others have complained that the division was not a good fit with Cisco's core business. Three years ago, Google acquired Motorola’s set-top box business after buying Motorola Mobility Holdings. Shortly thereafter, it sold off the STB division to ARRIS Group for $2.35 billion. In May, ARRIS Group acquired European set-top box maker Pace for $2.1 billion, making it the largest provider of pay-TV boxes in the world.