The U.S. cable industry is poised to earn $18 billion in business services revenue in 2018, and possibly reach $20 billion toward the end of 2019, according to some analysts. That is the good news for cable executives, as business services now is displacing internet access as the driver of new revenues.
The bad news is that, by some estimates, current revenues already exceed total spending by small and medium-sized U.S. businesses. Granted, U.S. cable companies sell to enterprises, not just SMBs. But the sales figures might suggest that much of the SMB opportunity already has been gained.
Comcast Business alone is on an annual run rate of $7.2 billion, with Charter Communications Inc. (Spectrum Enterprise), at about $6.2 billion, according to Standard & Poors.
Obviously, the biggest portion of future growth now must come from sales to enterprise customers.
Some analysts believe there is additional growth available in the business customer market in the “micro” (less than 10 employees) segment of the business market. That might be true in some markets globally.
In the U.S. market, it is likely the case that virtually all that market already is served by cable or telco suppliers. It is hard to quantify, as tier-one service providers tend to sell to such small organizations using the same channels as the consumer market.
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