Cable operators are increasingly marketing standalone broadband service, Credit Suisse...
Cable operators are increasingly marketing standalone broadband service, Credit Suisse analyst Stefan Anninger wrote investors. In recent years, cable companies charged a premium to customers who did not buy broadband in a bundle with other products, he said. But “over…
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the last 18 months, two elements of cable’s HSD [high speed data] pricing have changed,” he said. Cable operators are offering their flagship broadband tiers at promotional prices of $30 a month for six to 12 months, and when the promotions end, the price customers ultimately pay is the same as customers who buy it in a bundle, he said: “For years” multiple system operators (MSOs) “resisted offering standalone HSD at an attractive price for fear of discouraging bundling and putting its video business at risk.” With about 65 percent of the industry’s video subscribers already buying broadband, subscriber growth has been harder to achieve, Anninger said. “Cable’s new HSD pricing strategy signals an important identity shift: namely the industry’s growing cognizance that MSOs are increasingly HSD providers that offer video vs. video providers that happen to offer HSD."