Comcast makes desperate move to gain back fleeing customers

Comcast has announced a new plan to gain back the recent losses it faced in its business.

May 17, 2024 - 06:30

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Comcast makes desperate move to gain back fleeing customers

Comcast (CMCSA) is refusing to suffer any more losses as its pool of subscribers are shrinking amid the growing cord-cutting trend, where consumers are switching out cable TV for streaming subscriptions.

The telecommunications giant has officially dipped its feet in the world of streaming, its biggest competitor, as the company is planning to sell a streaming service bundle called StreamSaver that offers Apple TV+, Netflix and Peacock for customers who subscribe to Comcast's cable TV or internet service.

“We’ve been bundling video successfully and creatively for 60 years, and so this is the latest iteration of that,” said Comcast Chair Brian Roberts, while announcing the bundle at a conference in New York on May 14. “I think this will be a pretty compelling package.”

Roberts claims that the bundle will “come at a vastly reduced price to anything in the market today” and that the goal is to “add value to consumers” and “take some of the dollars out of” other streaming businesses.

The price of the bundle has yet to be revealed by the company, but Apple TV+ is currently $9.99 a month, Netflix’s cheapest plan starts at $6.99 a month (with ads) and Peacock charges $5.99 a month for its Premium subscription.

The move from Comcast comes after it reported in its first-quarter earnings for 2024 that in the U.S., it lost about 65,000 broadband customers and roughly 487,000 video customers during the quarter. Its revenue it made from residential video subscribers also shrunk by 6.9%.

A Comcast Xfinity van.
Image source: Shutterstock

“The strong growth in our connectivity businesses was offset by a decline in video and other revenue,” said Comcast Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong during an earnings call on April 25. “The decline in our video revenue was driven by continued customer losses and slower domestic ARPU (average revenue per unit) growth versus last year.”

Cable TV is withering away in American households. According to a recent survey from digital security firm All About Cookies, it found that only 46% of Americans still use traditional cable or satellite TV services, and only 14% of cord-cutters regret cutting their cable.

The survey also found that 76% of the respondents watch shows through paid streaming services, and that younger people are less likely to watch cable TV as only 27% of the Gen-Zers who participated in the survey said they have cable.

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