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NY Post

Whoa! Cable TV Mogul Says It’s Likely Bundling of Cable Services Will Fall by the Wayside

Sep 30, 2014  •  Post A Comment

The CEO of one of the major cable operators in the United States believes that the bundling of cable TV services will eventually go away, reports our good friend Claire Atkinson in the New York Post.

Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan “believes the cable programming bundle will fall by the wayside thanks to advances such as Netflix,” Atkinson writes.

The story quotes Dolan saying: “As we start to see more [companies like] Netflix, they’ll siphon away from the bundle but you might see programming you like go away.”

“Dolan spoke as part of an Advertising Week panel on the changing face of marketing sports, music and movie stars,” the report notes. Dolan also runs MSG, which is Madison Square Garden. MSG owns the NBA team the New York Knicks.

For the quarter of the year ending June 30, 2014, Cablevision reported 3.1 million customers. Its average monthly cable revenue per video customer, the company said at that time, was $174.14. Cablevision primarily serves customers in the New York/Tri-State metro area.

James DolanJames Dolan

 

 

 

 

 

5 Comments

  1. Time to allow a la cart programming. I hate playing for channels I never watch. If the channels can’t attract enough viewers they shouldn’t be subsidized just so they can survive. That’s why I’m happy to pay for Netflix and Hulu Plus.

  2. Wow! $175 a month on the average? That’s just insane when you can get tv over the air for free and stream just about everything else you might want to see on anything from a PS3 to a computer to a phone to something like the Google dongle.

  3. I would not want to just stream – internet speeds are not that consistent and having to wait to buffer is a pain. I have Cablevision, and am pleased with the service except for them not carrying the SEC Network. Their HD quality is better than other cable companies, the DVR which yes uses the cloud works well, and I’m bundled with phone and internet (and paying a lot less than what he quotes – which probably does take into account the Triple Play). Are there useless sations on the system I don’t care to watch – of course starting with every shopping and religous channel. But it is about choice. Cable still provides that. If al a carte happens, great, if not, I still can choose what I want and don’t want to watch, and not wait for something to buffer.

  4. Hello FreeRightsUSA,
    My wife and I were displaced from our home for three months and decided to experiment and cut the very expensive cable cord, the service had just gone up (again) to about $180.00. We were tired of the “Have I got a bundle deal for you!” merry-go-round. We found that we watched less television, found new programming online, but could still watch the shows we liked when we wanted. We bought a $12.00 digital antennae that works great with crystal clear images, sure we have to adjust it occasionally but it’s free. Not only are we able to watch all the local broadcast channels it also gives us an additional 16 or so digital channels. We had internet service installed,. $54.00 a month. We bought our own WiFi router for about $90.00, a Roku box for about $99.00, and Hulu Plus for $8.00 a month. The initial outlay was about $265.00 or so, a little more than a two month subscription payment. We now pay 54.00+8.00 a month and no extra taxes or local fees. Almost forgot, a good laptop computer and an HDMI cable and you can watch anything on the Net in full 1080 HD. Not sure why buffering is an issue, we hardly every have that problem and if we do it only lasts a few seconds, perhaps it’s the speed of your local service. We’re very happy, we’re back in our home and did not request the re-installation of our cable service.

  5. I gave up on Pay-TV in 2006 after I saw an age-inappropriate commercial (the one that rips off an old elvis tune about a city in Nevada) aired during a children’s show. I was paying $65.00 a month when I “cut the cord” (It would cost over twice as much now for the same service). Using that same money to purchase programming on home vidoo, I have amassed a collection so huge that at the rate of four hours an evening it would take me over 25 years to watch all of them! I pay ONLY for the programs I like, there are no schlock (Read “Reality” Shows) to watch, and no commercials to cope with (ESPECIALLY Political Commercials, since this is an election year). I’m all for al-la-carte programming, but I now longer need a subscription.

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