What is happening to the world of cable television?
Once upon a time, way back in the 1990s, Comcast was one of many tiny cable television providers, run by Ralph Roberts. Back then, the original AT&T acquired Telecommunications Inc. TCI was the largest cable TV behemoth at the time. Back then the Baby Bells were also getting into pay TV. Cable TV was at its height in popularity. But then, in the blink of an eye, the whole thing just slipped through their fingers. AT&T had to sell TCI and Comcast acquired it from them.
After acquiring TCI from AT&T, now under Ralphs son Brian Roberts, Comcast next acquired NBC Universal and seemingly overnight became the biggest kid on the cable TV block.
That vision of slowing the transformation of the industry worked for a while, but it has been slipping through their fingers as well over the past decade or two as cable TV continues to lose market share.
To combat market share loss, Comcast changed to broadband
The moves Comcast Xfinity has made over time has only slowed the inevitable. However, they can’t slow down the huge shift impacting the entire industry thanks to new technology, new competitors, new business model, and an entirely new industry direction.
This is what I have been warning would happen for the past decade or two. While I am saddened by this industry loss, that is progress.
Some companies can catch the next growth wave. Others cannot.
You see, cable TV is changing at the roots. It’s not only Comcast, but the entire cable TV industry facing this same threat.
Threats against Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, Altice, Cox
It would have been easier for the marketplace to digest this if these companies would have been open about the challenges they faced and the coming changes.
All cable TV competitors including Comcast, Charter with Spectrum, Altice, Cox and more are all facing the same industry shift.
That means new growth opportunities combined with new threats to the old guard.
So, this is not just a Comcast Xfinity story. If we pull the camera back, we can see this is a larger, industry wide problem impacting every competitor, large and small.
In fact, smaller cable TV providers have already made it clear they are exiting cable TV. This will most likely happen with more as time goes by.
Every company and industry ride a growth-wave up and down again
So, let us look at what is going to happen next in cable TV, telephone, wireless, AI, streaming, broadband, Internet and so much more.
You see, every industry and every player ride a growth wave. It rises or grows, then it crests, then it falls. Eventually, it often completely collapses or becomes absorbed into another industry.
Remember the fax machine, the iPod, regular screen TV’s and so much more? Gone.
That means there will be quite a bit of deal making and changes to look forward to in the next cycle.
Example: consider long-distance. In the 1980s and 1990s it was a separate industry sector led by AT&T, MCI, Sprint and countless others after the break-up of Ma Bell in the early 1980s.
Then in the 1990s, as the walls between sectors fell, customers chose a Baby Bell to handle local and long distance.
That’s when long-distance became part of what the Baby Bells offered. Long-distance as a stand-alone business sector was absorbed.
The traditional cable television industry along with the local telephone business grew until the 2000s. People even ordered separate lines for their broadband connection.
However, new ideas, new technology, new competitors, new laws and regulations and so much more changed everything. It always does.
Broadband, Wi-Fi, streaming TV, wireless are new leaders
The Internet, broadband, streaming television and wireless are some of these new technologies. This ushered in a new era we have been watching change our world for years.
So, yes Comcast Xfinity will not only sell off NBC properties as needed, but the cable television industry as a whole will also change, dramatically.
Here is a surprise to many. We think of companies like Xfinity, Spectrum, Altice and Cox as cable television companies. Wrong.
They used to be cable TV companies. However, cable TV market share has been dropping like a rock over the past two decades.
Today many smaller cable TV providers with cable TV market share of less than 10% are leaving the industry altogether.
Today, these are broadband companies. Today, they are wireless resellers. Today, they are streaming services which use the Internet and broadband to connect to the customer.
Warning about shrinking cable TV and telephone industry for years
Apparently, the line has been crossed. Now the story will be about the changing cable TV and telephone industry and companies.
Expect lots of change in coming years. This is the industry wide shakeup that industry insiders have known was coming.
This is what I have been warning about for longer than I can remember. However, the players decided to add to their arsenal with wireless and broadband to slow the change-wave so they could keep sucking the cable TV fruit dry.
All this transformation is due to wireless, broadband or the Internet and the ever-changing technology wave.
New tech like AI, IoT, streaming, wireless broadband, Wi-Fi and more
So, let’s buckle-up. Now, let’s get excited about tomorrow with all the future technology like AI, IoT, streaming, broadband, Wi-Fi, wireless, data networks and so much more.
The future looks bright, with several bumpy sections ahead. New growth waves have already begun.
Wireless carriers are starting to offer wireless home internet or wireless broadband using FWA technology.
Cable TV has a similar opportunity with wireless DOCSIS technology. They too can offer wireless home broadband without using cable.
The future looks very bright, but very different. Every competitor must get on the same bandwagon if they want to participate in the next growth wave.
