In an ironic twist, cable TV and Internet provider Comcast has announced that it, too, will sell a bundle of video-streaming services for a discounted price. The announcement comes as Comcast has been rapidly losing cable TV subscribers to streaming services and seeks to bring the same type of bundling that originally drew people away from cable to streaming.
Starting on an unspecified date this month, the bundle, called Streamsaver, will offer Peacock, which Comcast owns, Apple TV+, and Netflix to people who subscribe to Comcast’s cable TV and/or broadband. Comcast already offers Netflix or Apple TV+ as add-ons to its cable TV, but Streamsaver expands Comcast’s streaming-related bundling efforts.
Last month, Comcast said it lost 487,000 cable TV subscribers in Q1 2024. It ended the quarter with 13,600,000 subscribers, compared to 14,106,000 at the end of 2023 and 16,142,000 at the end of 2022.
Comcast’s broadband subscriber base also decreased from 32,253,000 at the end of 2023 to 32,188,000.
Peacock, Comcast’s flagship streaming service, hasn’t made any money since launching in 2020 and lost $2.7 billion in 2023. However, in April, Comcast said that Peacock’s Q1 losses lessened from $704 million in Q1 2023 to $639 million in Q1 2024.
One of the common reasons people abandoned cable TV were bundled packages that forced people to pay for services, like phone or Internet, or channels that they didn’t want. Now, Comcast is looking to save its shrinking subscriber base by bundling its cable TV or Internet service with some of its biggest competitors. Like streaming services, Comcast is hoping that bundling its products will deter people from canceling their subscriptions since they’re tied to each other.
“What could possibly go wrong?” – The Cable TV industry.
Consumers with twenty years of technological advancements on their side:
I mean, it could make sense if a few conditions were met:
- I wanted the streaming subscriptions in the bundle
- net neutrality keeps them from punishing me for not going through them (bundled Netflix fastlane of whatever)
- the discount for bundling is worth the longer contract duration
I know people who, for whatever reason, have subscriptions to all three already, and the FCC recently clarified that fastlanes are prohibited under the revised net neutrality guidelines, so I think it all comes down to them hitting a price that makes it worth the commitment.
Also, I forgot the fourth condition:- it can’t be from Comcast because they’re untrustworthy scum I wouldn’t trust to give me free lemonade on a hot day.
That last one’s a bit of a big one.
Lol I wouldn’t trust Comcast to piss on me if I was on fire in their lobby.
“We’ll have a technician in your area in 3-5 days”
