TDG Reports Demand for PC Access to Cable TV Service

DALLAS: Newly released data indicates that 43 percent of broadband users are interested in having access to cable TV channels via their PCs, with 29 percent of those respondents indicating they would be willing to shell out an extra $10 per month to pay-TV platforms for that added benefit.

The survey from TDG comes following reports that U.S. cable giants Comcast and Time Warner Cable are working on web TV services that would give their subscribers online access, via their own branded portals, to content from a range of pay-TV channels.

"Cable operators are working aggressively to neutralize the growing threat of online video and the inevitable erosion of traditional pay-TV viewership," said Michael Greeson, the president of TDG and director of TDG’s quantitative research initiatives. "Making their best content available for online viewing through their own branded portals instead of online aggregators such as Hulu is the right strategy at the right time. Even incumbent pay TV operators—the antithesis of fast-movers when it comes to Internet video—understand that very soon their one-stop, one-screen TV services will be challenged by alternative conduits and new screens."

Doing this as a free offering, however, Greeson says,  "undervalues the very content which has for years driven subscriptions and overlooks a sizeable opportunity to grow revenue and profits at a time during which simply avoiding collapse is seen as a major accomplishment for operators."

He adds: "Comcast has close to 17 million digital TV subscribers and 15 million broadband Internet subscribers. If 29 percent of Comcast’s broadband Internet subscribers (4.35 million) would spend an extra $10 per month to have their current TV programming delivered to their PCs, that’s an additional $43.5 million in gross revenue each month (~$130 million per quarter or ~$522 million per year). In times like these—in which simply maintaining revenues and profits would be considered an accomplishment—an extra $500 million in additional revenue can make a huge difference."