<div dir="ltr"><div>I used to cover cable tech. The engineers really are trying to achieve the best quality service they can. I spoke far less frequently to the marketing/finance guys, but what they're dealing with is that margins on video are low (and with content owners cranking up their prices at rates you would not believe, getting lower -- some ops insist they are losing money on video) while broadband margins are high. Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts punish payTV providers who fail to regularly increase ARPU (average revenue per user), and payTV ops can't increase ARPU with subs who take basic packages. They never liked those subs anyway, as many of them would flit from provider to provider each time their introductory offer lapsed. If those subs came back, fine, take their money, but no biggie when they leave again. So, yes, payTV customer service absolutely does suck, but there is minimal incentive to improve it for anyone other than the most affluent customers who pay the highest monthly fees, and Wall Street merits some of the blame for that.</div><div><br></div><div>Speaking as someone who cut the cord 15 years ago, pay TV packages are still not a bad deal for people who watch a lot of TV, and that's why I think there are still tens of millions of payTV subscribers, and will be for some time. The industry may be losing subs, but for the short-term future, they are subs the industry can afford to lose. <br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 2:45 PM Tom Henderson <<a href="mailto:thenderson@extremelabs.com">thenderson@extremelabs.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div class="m_2866349772907572426moz-cite-prefix">On 11/21/18 5:22 PM, Patrick Corrigan
wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">> <span>In a Comcast boardroom this week - </span>
<div><br>
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<div>> Executive - "How can retain customers?"</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>> Jr. Executive - "How about if we don't treat or
customers like dirt?"</div>
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<div>And yet, Comcast makes Time Warner/Spectum look good!</div>
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<div dir="ltr">On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 4:54 AM Phil Shapiro <<a href="mailto:pshapiro@his.com" target="_blank">pshapiro@his.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
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<div><br>
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<div><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/outlook-for-traditional-tv-goes-from-bad-to-worse-1542632401" target="_blank">https://www.wsj.com/articles/outlook-for-traditional-tv-goes-from-bad-to-worse-1542632401</a></div>
<div><br>
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<div><br>
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<div>In a Comcast boardroom this week - </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Executive - "How can retain customers?"</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Jr. Executive - "How about if we don't treat or
customers like dirt?"</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
<br>
<div>-- <br>
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<div>--<br>
Phil Shapiro, <a href="mailto:pshapiro@his.com" target="_blank">pshapiro@his.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.his.com/pshapiro/briefbio.html" target="_blank">http://www.his.com/pshapiro/briefbio.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro" target="_blank">http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro</a><br>
<a href="http://www.his.com/pshapiro/stories.menu.html" target="_blank">http://www.his.com/pshapiro/stories.menu.html</a><br>
<br>
"Wisdom begins with wonder." - Socrates<br>
"Learning happens thru gentleness."<br>
<div><span>"We must reinvent a future free of
blinders so that we can choose from real
options." David Suzuki</span><br>
</div>
</div>
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Patrick Corrigan<br>
Email: <a href="mailto:phcorrigan@gmail.com" target="_blank">phcorrigan@gmail.com</a><br>
<div><span>LinkedIn: </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-h-corrigan-61669422" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-h-corrigan-61669422</a></div>
<div><span>Member, Internet Press Guild </span><a href="http://www.netpress.org" target="_blank">http://www.netpress.org</a><br>
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<div><br>
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<div>"For every difficult and complex question there
is an answer that is simple, easily understood and
wrong."<br>
H.L. Mencken<br>
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<pre class="m_2866349772907572426moz-signature" cols="72">--
Tom Henderson
ExtremeLabs, Inc.
+1 317 250 4646
Twitter: @extremelabs
Skype: extremelabsinc</pre>
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