Wired: The old cable model is going the way of the dinosaur

The numbers are in: broadband subscriptions surpassed cable subscriptions for the first time this year. What do you think Big Telecom should do to keep up with the Internet age? Article by Marcus Wohlsen for Wired You can’t call them “cable companies” anymore.

The numbers are in: broadband subscriptions surpassed cable subscriptions for the first time this year. What do you think Big Telecom should do to keep up with the Internet age?

Article by Marcus Wohlsen for Wired

You can’t call them “cable companies” anymore.

For the first time, the number of broadband subscribers with the major U.S. cable companies exceeded the number of cable subscribers, the Leichtman Research Group reported today. Among other things, these figures suggest the industry is now misnamed. Evidently these are broadband companies that offer cable on the side.

To be sure, the difference is minimal: 49,915,000 broadband subscribers versus 49,910,000 cable subscribers. But even assuming a huge overlap in those numbers from customers who have both, the primacy of broadband demonstrates a shift in consumer priorities. Nearly all the major cable companies added broadband subscribers over the past quarter, for a total of nearly 380,000 new signups. Cable subscribers don’t have to worry about TV as they know it going away any time soon. But cable is on its way to becoming secondary, the “nice to have” compared to the necessity of having broadband access.

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