Comments
clrmoney
7/29/2016 10:53:56 AM
User Rank Platinum
Comcast and OTT
If that is best for business for Comcast not to choose with OTT-Over the Top if they are not living up to the expectations that they hoped.
afwriter
7/29/2016 11:10:55 AM
User Rank Platinum
No suprise
There is no real direction that Comcast could go right now to compete with other OTT offerings. Maybe once Amazon and Netflix start only making original programing (that is conjecture and not even close to reality) then Comcast can pick up the OTT mantle.
Re: No suprise
Comcast has the technology, the content rights relationships, and a large backbone in place to offer a nationwide OTT service, but would it dare offer its OTT services in the same regions as other cable operators, such as Charter? I think that's a factor as well since most of the cable operators (exceptions being small operators such as WOW and RCN) have stayed in their respective fiefdoms.
vnewman
7/29/2016 3:25:12 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
So @Mike - do you think that's like a professional courtesy in a way?
I sort of like the strategy of Comcast keeping it's focus and not trying to get its hand into everything - I mean, you typically can't be good at everything - unless you're Amazon :)
Re: No suprise
It's been that way ever since the first franchise agreements were signed. Each cable operator got its own piece of the pie. Then Verizon, A&T and the overbuilders came along. I agree with what Adi wrote; Comcast is biding its time for now.
Michelle
7/29/2016 4:54:18 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
Sounds like there's not enough pie to go around... any chance this might turn out differently?
Re: No suprise
@vnewman: Amazon is *hardly* good at everything. ;)
Sincerely,
A former Amazon customer who recently did business with them after years again only to be again disappointed
faryl
7/30/2016 8:09:27 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
I've had a couple of customer service issues there too - but compared to how much I use their services vs. times they've disappointed me, I think they have a decent track record.
That said, the times they *have* messed up, it's been at a spectacular level and has been when escalation just ends up with a response that's basically, "yeah - well, we're not going to do anything to address this, don't bother replying to this message - we're done discussing it".
As someone who hates leaving my house & dealing with stores, I still end up sticking with them though - since even with their screw-ups they're often my best option :-/
Re: No suprise
@faryl:
Comcast customer service issues is no new topic for this forum. We keep hearing about variety of experiences from people here. I hope they would invest some time and energy to address this as an emerging issue and make some improvements. That will only do good for the company with happy customers.
Re: No suprise
@faryl: I complained on Twitter about a recent issue (long story short: their Amazon Prime driver evidently lied about making any attempt to deliver package because I was home and available, waiting, the whole time; didn't even get so much as a phone call; had to have a lengthy call with idiotic/unhelpful customer service; when the guy came for redelivery the next day, he yelled and was rude, apparently annoyed I had called him out on his nonsense). Twitter customer response team told me to go to some website and fill out a form. All this over a $25 order. Forget it.
vnewman
8/5/2016 1:01:42 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
@Joe - I don't know Joe, their stock says otherwise!
There's a story behind your comment - do tell: what happened to turn you off of them?
And of course, it's all relative. Right now, they are doing ,*most* things marginally better than most others, but better is still better.
afwriter
7/30/2016 12:13:33 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
@Mike I wouldn't argue with any of your points but I still think that Comcast would not be able to provide anything drastically different than Netflix or Amazon right now in terms of content and they would most likely not undermine them in price either. I feel like this is a case of Comcast saying they are not interested instead of trying and failing.
I will be interested to see how their slim package compares to others when it rolls out nation wide.
faryl
7/30/2016 8:01:49 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
The content Comcast offers through their online xfinity site is better than Hulu, Netflix & Amazon combined.
In addition to pay-per-view & free/included VOD, they have a decent selection of live TV options and their UI is actually pretty good.
Comcast isn't a cable provider where I live - I'd pay for an Internet-only package if they offered one. (Not sure if that still qualifies as OTT though?)
Re: No suprise
@faryl:
That's good to know. I haven't used comcast in recent times and hence lost the touch. I use Netflix largely and am very satisfied with that. Hence i got surprised to see your mention of Comcast being better than Netfkix and Hulu.
elizabethv
7/30/2016 9:22:01 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
@MikeRobuck - One aspect you mention is key, they have access to the content rights. And this includes the newer shows. This could really, potentially, make them a major competitor - in my opinion. They could potentially make their service cheaper than Hulu, with fewer commercials. Or offer shows that Hulu doesn't offer - that you might find on Amazon but have to pay for in addition to what you already pay for Prime. But then, you're right in the other aspect as well, do they offer their service in areas where there are other cable operators? Or perhaps all of the cable operators could get together and launch something? I think it's possible to offer a service that would help them stand out - but I think it would have to be done right. They must not be interested.
Re: No suprise
It is interesting to see Comcast stepping away from OTT despite having required platform. It is rather fair to say Comcast is making a smart choice?
dlr5288
7/31/2016 5:20:33 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
I agree!
I personally think it's a good choice. Comcast is super popular right now and it's rall doing great with consumers. I just hope that this doesn't hurt them in the long run.
Re: No suprise
Good to hear more and more about Comcast. That helps to get more insight. Thanks for sharing.
dlr5288
7/31/2016 6:29:31 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
I've had it for years too! And honestly not too much of a problem ever! No problem.
vnewman
8/5/2016 1:20:50 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
@dlr5288 - I think Comcast has made some progress overall but continues to tank in the customer service realm. For seven years in a row Comcast ranked at the bottom of 24/7 Wall St.'s annual customer satisfaction poll.
Now they are being sued: This week Washington state filed a $100 million lawsuit against Comcast, accusing the company of 1.8 million violations of the the state's Consumer Protection Act. The gist is their $4.99-per-month "Service Protection Plan," which is supposed to cover in-wall wiring, but excludes interior wall wiring that requires wall fishing?
Huh? Stay away from OTT Comcast until you get this mess sorted out.
Ariella
8/5/2016 1:27:54 PM
User Rank Author
Re: No suprise
@vnewman thanks for sharing that. These kinds of protection plans always seem to have exclusions that protect the company for shelling out real money to cusotmers. It reminds me of my experience with the furniture warranty I purchased.
dlr5288
8/30/2016 1:21:46 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
I had no idea! But good to know. I've had Comcast for 5ish years now and really never had a problem with customer service.
Re: No suprise
@afwriter: That's just it. Comcast SHOULDN'T try to compete. There is so much competition in the OTT marketplace right now and there are no real differentiators in terms of content.
And that's where Comcast is focusing and must continue to focus (and it understands that) -- differentiated, exclusive content. Beyond the content, there's not much room for real innovation in this space at the moment -- and a glut of cooks in the kitchen.
elizabethv
7/30/2016 9:29:27 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
@Joe Stanganelli - I certainly agree there are a lot of OTT services right now, and they most definitely overlap. But I don't really see overlap as a bad thing - because where one might overlap I might not like the rest of their content, versus another service with the same overlap, but different separate content that I would like.
Actually, I think Amazon might be a good example here. You shared in another post you don't care for Amazon and have had some problems. Personally, I LOVE Amazon. I'm a huge fan. I order things far more frequently than I should, and I rarely watch any other OTT services than Amazon. For reasons all your own, apparently they don't work for you. And that's fine. But Amazon works wonderfully for me - in fact I have really only had one hiccup only to find their customer service was amazing and took care of the situation with no issue. You've had a different experience, so you do business elsewhere. This is where various OTT providers are actually a great thing.
Whether or not Comcast needs to be in the game? I suppose that's mostly up to them, they seem to have decided against at this point.
Re: No suprise
@elizabethv:
I second you on Amazon. I believe with Amazon prime they secured even more customers and their hearts. My family uses Amazon extensively and are pretty happy with their customer service as well.
Re: No suprise
@elizabethv: Sure. Your points are all sound. My only point is just because it's an industry where there's money to be made doesn't mean Comcast has to jump into the pool too, necessarily.
Besides, for the CAPEX to get into that business? They're money is better spent on other things. In particular: Content.
Re: No suprise
Joe, as a stray idea off your post: I wonder if eventually content itself will work like the old imitation cycle in publishing used to work: there were actually only M ready and N potential buyers for a given flavor of book (say, vampire westerns). If there had never been such a book, or hadn't been one in a long while, the first one to come out got almost all M buyers, and became a cult bestseller; that got media attention, recruiting many of the N, which looked like explosive growth. So every other publisher would try to clone that first book, and now Library Journal and Publisher's Weekly would be screaming TREND, and booksellers would order and display more, and eventually the whole N would be recruited into buying -- and now "vampire westerns" looked like a sure thing forever.
Until, of course, the publishers desperately overbought, subdividing the N so much that no one book or writer made much money (except, perhaps, the few that started the trend). Then it would be declared over, done with, dead, and contracts would be cancelled and vampire westerns would go away for a generation ...
This may be possible not just for one genre of books but for content itself. There are only so many watchers. They can or will only watch so much. As more OTT providers repack more of the same stuff, at some point, nobody will make much money and shakeout will get serious.
Could content itself eventually be "over"?
mhhf1ve
8/4/2016 6:16:26 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: No suprise
Amazon vs Comcast's customer support..
My experience has been that Amazon's customer support is far better than any ISP I've dealt with before. If only Amazon sold broadband connections.... maybe it will someday.
Re: No suprise
Well said @joe.
OTT is not the only thing. As you stated it's all about innovation about the content. Whoever comes out with another creative option to presnt digital content to the world is what it takes to yet another innovation, who knows that may wipe off OTT.
Re: No suprise
@ms.a: Indeed, customers don't care about the specific technology. They care about what's economically efficient for the content they care about. As long as you can provide in-demand content to people in a competitive and accessible way that they can economically rationalize, it doesn't matter whether your tech is old or new. OTT is a red herring.
Re: No suprise
@Joe:
Very true. As all technology runs behind the scenes, all that matters is how seemlessly customers gets to see the value behind in terms of services / content that they get.
Sounds fine to me
I don't think this he's wrong. Despite the tremendous growth of OTT and mobile video, cable is still here to stay and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Comcast understands the business it's in and wants to stay there -- as a stalwart complement to online video instead of a competitor.
What Next
At the INTX event earlier this year, Roberts also said Comcast had no plans to offer an OTT service. But he then added, "The world always changes, so these answers are good for this moment."
Yes, It is interesting to hear Comcast's take on OTT. But looks like they have their own strategy planned as an option, and their statemnet about chnaging world gives some justiifcation for the same. Their move with STREAM is only reassurance for customers. I am sure much more to come !!!
|
|
Italy's 5G auction could exceed a government target of raising €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) after attracting interest from companies outside the mobile market.
The emerging-markets operator is focusing on the humdrum business of connectivity and keeping quiet about some of its ill-fated 'digitalization' efforts.
Three UK has picked Huawei over existing radio access network suppliers Nokia and Samsung to build its 5G network.
Vendor says that it's its biggest 5G deal to date.
Verizon skates where the puck is going by waiting for standards-based 5G devices to launch its mobile service in 2019.
Orange has been one of the leading proponents of SDN and NFV. In this Telco Transformation radio show, Orange's John Isch provides some perspective on his company's NFV/SDN journey.
10/16/2017
Huawei Network Transformation Seminar
The adoption of virtualization technology and cloud architectures by telecom network operators is now well underway but there is still a long way to go before the transition to an era of Network Functions Cloudification (NFC) is complete.
The Small Cell Forum's CEO Sue Monahan says that small cells will be crucial for indoor 5G coverage, but challenges around business models, siting ...
People, strategy, a strong technology roadmap and new business processes are the key underpinnings of Telstra's digital transformation, COO Robyn ...
Eric Bozich, vice president of products and marketing at CenturyLink, talks about the challenges and opportunities of integrating Level 3 into ...
Epsilon's Mark Daley, director of digital strategy and business development, talks about digital transformation from a wholesale service provider ...
Bill Walker, CenturyLink's director of network architecture, shares his insights on why training isn't enough for IT employees and traditional ...
All Videos
|
On-the-Air Thursdays Digital Audio
Special Huawei Video
Tweet This