Comcast Loses 65,000 Video Customers
Everyone’s favorite monopoly and censor lost 65,000 video users. Their stocks slipped quite a bit too.
“This is death by a thousand cuts, because no one number is particularly weak but they paint a picture of decelerating growth,” Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said of Comcast’s third-quarter report.
Comcast had signaled to Wall Street that it would lose video customers, but Moffett said he was expecting a loss of 44,000, not 65,000. He had expected Comcast to gain 684,000 phone customers, but it added 662,000. Comcast was “just a touch light on each number,” he said.
Comcast stock is trading at an all-time low as a multiple of cash flow, and Moffett described it as “starkly undervalued.”
Do you think it might have something to do with the fact that Comcast got caught redhanded blocking its own customers from sharing files, slowing uploads and preventing customers from sharing complete files? It’s no secret that Comcast (and fellow thieves its colleagues) has been trying to exert more and more control over the Internet as if it’s their private playing field rather than an important public utility necessary for conducting business and communications, so its good to see them suffer a setback and some financial losses. This is the same company that’s helped prevent Philadelphians from having public access television for over a decade, and the same company that’s trying to replace the level playing field of the Internet with a cable-TV tiered model. That’s worked out SO well for everyone so far hasn’t it?
Frankly, I hope Comcast loses more video users and more money. They’ve abused the public trust repeatedly, and it’s nice to see karma (if that’s what it is) turn around and bite ‘em on the ass.
3 Responses to “Comcast Loses 65,000 Video Customers”
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October 28th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Well, they lost me a while back, but it wasn’t because of any of the above. They dropped the premium channels from their analog cable service. To keep them (so I could watch Bill Maher on HBO), customers had to switch to Comcast digital cable.
OK, fair enough. I went online to compare their price with the price for Verizon’s FIOS. For largely the same set of options, Verizon was marginally (like $15/month) cheaper. I made the switch, and I’m largely satisfied. My one dissatisfaction is with the wireless router that Verizon gave me, which is horribly slow to assign network addresses when a new connection is made - something that happens all too often because it spontaneously drops connections. I need to bug them for a replacement. But TV quality is great, network speed is great, phone service is great.
I never really had any problems with Comcast’s service. Maybe I was lucky. Then again, I don’t use anyone’s online services - I just pay for the pipe to the Internet.
October 28th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
It’s the competition aspect…Verizon FIOS-TV and internet–for which I would sign up in a heartbeat if it were offered in my neck of the woods–is a superior product. Not ‘revolution’ superior, but certainly ‘evolution’ superior.
And for some reason, even though I don’t think they have to, Comcast the content producer, does sell the local Philadelphia Comcast Sportsnet to FIOS TV.
(Due to a technologically obsolete loophole, Comcast is not require to make that station available to other distribtors, such as DirecTV and Dish Network. That keeps the penetration of those services artifically low in the Philadelphia region. I’m certain Comcast would loss customers in droves if we could get the Phillies, Sixers and Flyers via satellite.)
October 28th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
oh, and Verizon’s no privacy champion either:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2007/10/Verizon-Warrantless-Snooping.html
News: Last week’s revelation that Verizon readily opened its phone logs to the feds should come as no surprise. The firm is a standout example of the revolving door between government and the telecom industry.