Monday, January 14, 2019

How Many "Mass Market" Service Opportunities Exist?

Skepticism about telco or cable involvement in the subscription video business is understandable: consumer demand is changing in ways that reduce the size of the market.

On the other hand, the consumer communications segment of the business is dominated by the four anchor services” mobile, fixed broadband, subscription video and fixed phone service, with little to no growth in each product line, at least in most developed markets.

It has long been a truism that consumer spending--in communications or entertainment--tracks growth of income (national gross domestic product, household income). The caveat is that demand for some products has declined markedly (fixed network voice), is declining (linear video subscriptions), or is growing slowly (fixed network internet and mobility).

Even in growing markets such as Asia, there simply are not that many products “most” consumers will buy, and most of what they do buy is related to mobile service.


The big point is that there are very few products “most” consumers will buy. And subscription video of all types (linear or on-demand; streaming or as a managed service; over the top or bundled) is among the few “mass market” services access providers can enter, once they have reached maturity in mobile voice and data; fixed network voice and data.

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