With Freely due to launch soon as a new free television service from Everyone TV in the United Kingdom, we take a closer look at the service and its prospects. At first sight it looks like a laudable initiative, but market success is far from certain.
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Comcast lost 487,000 video customers in the United States in the first quarter of 2024. That follows net losses of over two million in the previous year. Charter Communications lost 405,000 in the quarter and over a million in the previous year. Between them they still have 26.73 million video customers in the United States, but that is 6.87 million fewer than they had just two years previously.
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The Federal Communications Commission has voted to restore net neutrality in the United States. It has reclassified broadband internet as a Title II telecommunications service, meaning that it is treated as an essential service, enabling the Commission to regulate it more effectively. The long-standing debate over network neutrality is unlikely to end there.
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Surveys show that online video subscriptions are liable to churn as customers look for value from their monthly bills. Almost 30 million subscribers to online video services in the United States, about a quarter of the total, have cancelled three or more services over the last two years, according to Antenna, a subscription research firm, as reported by the New York Times.
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Netflix added 9.33 million subscribers worldwide in the first quarter of 2024, which represents 16% growth in a year to just short of 270 million, with a claimed audience of over half a billion people. Quarterly operating income was $2.6 billion, up 54% on the same period the previous year. From 2025, when it could have 300 million subscribers worldwide, Netflix will no longer report quarterly subscriber numbers or average revenue, preferring to focus on revenue and free cash flow.
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Comcast is extending its NOW brand, originally developed by Sky in the United Kingdom, to the United States. NOW TV is available for Xfinity Internet customers and includes live and on-demand programming from over 40 networks, integrated FAST channels, and Peacock Premium, for $20 a month, with no long-term contract or credit checks.
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