Triple Play | THE CABLE PIPELINE

Why offering the Quad Play would help Cable’s Stock Price

: Image via Wikipedia

The mobile phone market is growing exponentially and will continue to evolve for years to come. Why has the Cable Industry not moved into the lucrative mobile phone market? It could definitely be a revenue bonanza, as it currently is for telecom companies. See (The cable company will likely use WiMax to bring television shows to cell phones and smart phones.)

Verizon and AT&T’s revenues, as a percentage of stock price by division, attributes mobile phone service up to 40-42% of total revenues. This being a logical assumption as landline phone demand has forced incumbent Telco’s to rethink their business models to include cable, broadband, and cell phone. The mobile market has exploded with smart phone technology and related applications for consumers continually on the go while wanting the latest gadgets to keep up with friends, business, and news. Why has this not attracted at least, some interest from the major cable players like a Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and others? See (TREFIS-Division as a % of Stock Price)

If you look at trending where the future of a Triple Play seems to be relegated to a future 2^nd grade status behind the Quad Play , while seemingly logical that to compete in the telecommunications market for consumer dollars, a one-stop shopping model needs to be in place; one would think some indication of cable companies launching or acquiring mobile service would be on the immediate horizon.

Let’s think this through. The Telecom Industry saw the “writing on the wall” when landline phone service began to decline, and hence forth began to diversify into other markets such as mobile phones, broadband, and cable TV service. It is logical that their upside in both the mobile phone, broadband, and cable TV markets is solid. With cable operators now looking at a possible paradigm shift from traditional cable to other venues, would it not make good economics to put your business on the same playing field with competitors? It would seem logical to me. There is a definite upside in getting into the mobile market for incumbent MSO’s; as in “keeping up with the Joneses’”, or if you prefer, your close competitors. See (From Triple Play to Home Run: Why Your Cable Company Should Offer Cell phone Service)

The Cable Industry has positioned itself to offer a myriad of services within the cell-phone market to other providers, but unfortunately it does not include its own. However having a competitive cell-phone service is more true to a solid success. If businesses fail to see trends that will impact their bottom line, they are doomed to failure. That is why companies must always be looking for a competitive advantage or keep up with existing competitor offerings, while making the best decisions to affect stockholder equity in a positive manner. Yes, revenues and profits may be good in the short term, but a long term strategy is what really matters, and it seems this is too good of an opportunity not to indulge.

Can 4G wireless take on traditional broadband? (reviews.cnet.com)
Could Cable Bills End Up Like iPhone Data Plans? (money.blogs.time.com)
Time Warner Cable 1Q profit up 30 percent as it added Internet, phone, digital cable customers (taragana.com)

GHTime Code(s): e185a 186cd 76585 3532f

Customer Service: Costs of not doing it well

: Image via Wikipedia

It is estimated that poor customer service has cost the Cable/Satellite Industry over $12 billion in lost revenues over the past year, ahead of the financial services industry with more than $10 billion in losses; which is startling considering Cable/Satellite companies project themselves as the future of home and business subscription services of all things information and entertainment.

How can these companies survive with such a poor record of customer care? Take the up and coming consumers, ages 27 – 43, who terminated services most frequently at 1 ½ times per year compared to older consumers. These consumers are the target audience that Cable/Telecom companies want the most due to their powerful (Triple Play) buying power. These companies will be looking toward a future where smart and educated consumers, the ones most sought after, will be willing to change providers at the least inkling of poor service. See (MediaPost – Research Briefs), based on research created by Genesys, with research firm Greenfield Online and Datamonitor/Ovum analysts.

Some of the most common reasons for bad experiences relate to call center incompetence, and voice self-service.

These experiences can be attributed to:

Repeating customer specifics
Caught in automated self-service
Kept on hold
Service Reps who do not recognize individual customer value
Being transferred from department to department

Obviously, these experiences have been exacerbated due to the consolidation of call centers, as well as the outsourcing of these centers. As stated in earlier posts, see (Top 10 Predictions for 2010), customer service will become a top priority in consumer value beginning in 2010 going forward. It has not escaped consumers that along with a continual rise of rates for Cable/Telecom services, due to a primary focus of increased technology roll-outs, a customer service focus has become secondary with continued customer contact consolidations and cost cutting measures as they target maximization profits. As a result technology and prices went up, while customer service spending was targeted for cuts.

As a new generation of consumers and businesses clamor to be connected, not only to each other, but to the world through Broadband, Digital TV, IPTV, and Business Services, they continually want a good experience with their providers when it comes to customer service. Many companies have turned to an Internet Self-Service Model to give consumers more of an immediate response to their issues, especially in the broadband, and VoIP sectors. These tools can repair connections quite quickly without having to phone a call-center and go through the automated voice response.

This is not to say that the Call Center will disappear anytime soon, but it does indicate a trend in how poor this method of customer service has performed, and how customers are using any alternative method available to bypass bad experiences to have problems resolved quickly and easily. Since companies are not going back to the local CSR formula that worked so well in the past, maybe they can create and online experience to solve the problems it created, and save over $13 billion per year for not doing customer service well.

Learn the Value Proposition of Home-Based Call Center Agents for Your Business During March 3 Webinar (prweb.com)
Reading Great Customer Service via Operational Excellence @CustomerThink (fredzimny.wordpress.com)
Social CRM – Delivering Exceptional Customer Experiences (java.sys-con.com)
IBM Business Analytics Reduce Customer Churn and Drive Revenue for Communications Service Providers (benzinga.com)

GHTime Code(s): d6af2 c7434 d1add af774 85611

Cable Trends: Predicting Stock Value as a Percentage of Division

: Image via Wikipedia

Cable Industry stocks, like all tech stocks, have seen their ups and downs when it comes to performance. The industry has been through periods of high infrastructure spending, acquisitions and divestitures, increased programming costs, higher retransmission costs, and competitive pressures, each playing its own role in keeping values lower.

How do industry revenue streams effect stock prices today with increasing changes within the marketplace becoming more common, and how will these market shifts impact those revenues and subsequently stock prices? If revenue trending is any indicator of stock performance, then look at division breakdowns as a contribution to stock prices. Where will revenue shifts take place and how these help will or hurt company performance going forward.

From analyzing trends in revenue generation, seeing the move from linear programming dominance can clearly be seen as a migration to High Speed Broadband, and Digital Phone. Digital Cable continues to be a strong performer as companies reclaim bandwidth to offer High Definition products. However Cable continues to shed subscribers on a quarterly basis as evidenced by Time Warner Cable ’s predicted 30,000 customer lose for the 4^th quarter 2009. Comcast, on the other hand, is expected to lose 150,000 customers during the period.

These are not huge numbers in the scheme of things referring to current Cable Company balance sheets, but do signify that portions of market segments are susceptible to continued churn for various reasons, whether those might be shifting demographics, economic pressures, disillusionment in price, etc… Without good trending information and significant data mining, corrective actions may continue to elusive.

The Triple Play bundle is by far the most dependable asset the industry has at its deposal to both retain and gain new customers, as referenced by the Comcast Triple Play. Consumers no longer want just Digital Cable without Broadband, and why not throw in Digital Phone to entice even more. After all the phone companies have stated they want out of the landline business. So, create a great price package that wins loyalty and reduces churn.

And while we are at the one-stop-shop counter; do not overlook the Quad Play . Both Verizon and AT&T have their sights set on offering Mobile Phone to complete a Quad Play bundle as well, throwing a true Superfecta into the mix.