As media trade watchers debate the affect of a doable recession, prime cable TV execs mentioned whether or not they see growth or gloom forward throughout appearances at an traders convention on Wednesday.
Dave Watson, president and CEO of Comcast Cable, argued small and medium sized companies have bounced again from the COVID-19 disaster, solely to face inflationary pressures as one other financial downturn looms.
“What we did within the early phases of the pandemic, we’re going work with shoppers throughout powerful occasions. That’s a very good trademark of cable. We’re going to be respectful of that. And if issues get more durable with gasoline and different issues, we’re going to be aware of that,” Watson informed the MoffettNathanson Media & Communications Summit throughout a session that was webcast.
He rapidly added Comcast Cable will proceed to take advantage of the digital transformation of the video trade accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. That features Comcast seeing subscriber progress for its Peacock streaming platform, promoting content material on-line, and transactional video-on-demand, the place shoppers buy content material on a pay-per-view foundation — even because the media big continues to lose conventional cable TV subscribers.
“We’ve stated, as we’ve anticipated, we’re going to lose cash. We’re not going to chase unprofitable video relationships. That can put strain on an on-going foundation to video,” Watson warned. However that was coming as Comcast Cable re-imagines the video expertise for its assorted markets.
He pointed to Comcast providing Flex, its aggregated streaming platform and {hardware}, to shore up its general buyer base. “We’re including Flex in the present day and the video attachment price will not be that far off, if you happen to add up Flex and linear, from the place we had been pre-pandemic,” Watson stated.
Pay TV subscribers have been declining throughout the board for years. On Could 17, Leichtman Analysis printed a report noting that the highest pay TV suppliers domestically misplaced a collective 1.95 million subscribers within the first quarter of this yr, a rise from a year-ago.
Throughout his personal look on the traders convention, Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei argued an financial slowdown won’t essentially produce subscriber losses because of the enduring enchantment of high-speed Web entry for subscribers.
“It’s truthful to say we consider this product, the broadband product, is fairly recession proof. You’d in all probability surrender your sizzling water or electrical energy first earlier than giving up your broadband. And so if we go right into a recession, which individuals are probably calling for, we don’t suppose that slows down the exercise,” Goei stated.
He added any recession could decelerate prospects upgrading to increased product tiers, however wouldn’t undercut underlying broadband takeup charges.