Consumers Want Television And Telephone Services From One Provider, Says Report

Consumers are increasingly wishing to buy their television and telephone services from a single provider, according to new research from US group J D Power and Associates.

This is good news for cable companies, such as Telewest and Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), which provide both multi-channel TV and a telephone service. For fixed line providers, like BT, the potential loss of business could amount to £850 million in revenue, according to the report.

Also, as a result, BSkyB may find customers choosing cable services over its satellite television service: “BSkyB could lose approximately one-half of its satellite TV business as households converge with fixed line and cable TV providers,” says the report.

However, the 3,000 households sampled were all served by either CWC, Comcast, General Cable, NTL or Telewest – all cable operators. The difficulty, from the cable industry’s point of view, is going to be in coaxing customers away from satellite television and fixed line telephone providers and into convergent services.

J D Power and Associates: 0171 331 5361