Jeff Kagan: Cable TV has been stretched to the limit: Is it going to snap? (Part 2)

February 11, 2025 at 08:00 AM EST

Second of two parts

Poor customer care has hurt cable TV user loyalty. It was worse when there was little competition. Things are better today, but the die is cast, and customers have a long memory.

Only in the past decade or two, as they were experiencing customer loss, did they start to pay attention to this self-created problem. However, that was obviously too late.

Another long-term problem with cable TV is it’s a three-part system.

That means as costs go up every year, the customer can’t complain to the content providers. They don’t have a relationship with that group.

So, as you can see, cable TV is a broken system.

Part of the problem is the cable TV providers. Another part of the problem is high cost, where the customer cannot complain to the content providers.

Why is Cable TV at the end of its life span?

Technology doesn’t last forever. New tech creates new services. New ideas grow and old ideas fade away. Remember when fax machine, long-distance calls and landline telephones existed?

Cable TV has changed over time. In the late 1990’s, after acquiring the TCI asset from AT&T, Comcast was firing on all cylinders.

At the time, TCI was the largest, national, cable television operation in the United States. It was originally acquired by AT&T. That turned AT&T into the largest cable TV provider in the country.

That was back in the days when AT&T was shrinking in the long-distance business. AT&T was ultimately acquired by SBC, who started using the AT&T brand name.

AT&T of today is not same company it once was. It is SBC with new name

The AT&T of today is not the brand we all grew up with. AT&T ultimately sold TCI to Comcast, turning them into the largest cable TV provider.

Now, 20 years later, Comcast Xfinity is struggling with the burden of the older cable TV chains wrapped around their ankles as they struggle to keep their head above water.

So, this problem is partially self-created and partially as result of modernizing technology, and cable TV was stuck in the past.

So, what’s next in the world of cable TV or pay TV?

I have been writing about this issue for more years than I can remember. The senior management of the nation’s cable TV providers have been blind to the damage they have been causing thanks to poor customer care for decades.

Think about how customers “feel” about different companies they do business with. They love some, like others and dislike others.

An example of a company customers love is Apple. An example of company’s customers dislike are all the cable television providers.

Cable TV has been trying to repair their broken relationship with the customer

Today, some of the reasons customers do not like cable TV providers are poor customer service, high costs, mixing their bundles in ways that mean customers must buy bigger packages to get what they want, and so on.

That’s part of the reason cable TV market share has been dropping for two decades and being replaced by other technology like streaming services using the Internet.

The writing has been on the wall for many years. That’s why cable TV has moved to other services. Broadband and wireless are two new areas.

In fact, today their primary service is no longer cable TV. In fact, it hasn’t been for quite a few years. Their primary services today are broadband and wireless.

Cable TV providers are starting to exit TV and focus on broadband

Cable TV providers, large and small have all been wrestling with the same problems for quite a while.

Smaller cable TV providers are already leaving the cable TV industry altogether. They remain in business offering broadband and wireless. Their cable TV market share had dropped to less than 10 percent.

Will the same eventually happen with all cable TV operators, even the larger players? Or will they successfully transform themselves?

What will ultimately happen to the cable TV industry?

I get the sense some will continue on in other forms like streaming, wireless and broadband. Others will fail. Perhaps they will be acquired.

Either way the industry as a whole, will change.

In the meantime, this is causing cable TV providers to continue to raise prices in order to support their bloated structure. Customers do not like this and that is why it can only last so long.

So, cable TV companies need to reinvent themselves. They need to focus on growth, not just slowing loss.

What will cable TV industry look like tomorrow?

The more expensive the service, the more users are looking for less expensive alternatives. So, how will cable TV fix this problem? How will they start to grow once again?

That’s the challenge faced by every cable television provider today.

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