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Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408
Comcast keeps losing TV subscribers, but it has a new way to fight cord cutting.
As streaming video continues to chip away at cable TV subscriber numbers, Comcast is making some of its Internet speed increases available only to customers that pay for both Internet and video service.
Last week, Comcast announced speed increases for customers in Houston and the Oregon/SW Washington areas. The announcement headlines were "Comcast increases Internet speeds for some video customers."
Customers with 60Mbps Internet download speeds are being upped to 150Mbps; 150Mbps subscribers are going to 250Mbps; and 250Mbps subscribers are getting a raise to 400Mbps or 1Gbps.
Comcast says speed increases will kick in automatically without raising the customers' monthly bills—but only if they subscribe to certain bundles that include both Internet and TV service.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 02 2018, @02:14PM
They doubled down with increasingly terrible service, more below-the-line fees, various forms of forced bundling and lock-ins, and anti-Net Neutrality lobbying.
The cablecos are doing the most sensible moves here. The people who don't care about TV (the "cord never" people you refer to) aren't going to be enticed into it just like I'm not likely to be enticed into watching Bollywood movies, so for them they can try forcing TV on them with things like this move to only give higher internet speed (something they probably *do* care about) if they also sign up for TV. And then, for all the people who love TV, you can make more profit by screwing them over more with lousier service (saves money), extra fees, nasty bundling deals (oh, you want this channel? You have to sign up for this special package that comes with all this other crap you don't want for $$$), and generally higher prices, plus of course anti-NN lobbying so they can use their ISP service to screw over customers who want use competing services like Netflix.
Luckily, the cablecos aren't really doing anything wrong here, and are just doing what we the people want. This is proven by the fact that we elected leaders who support this kind of corporate behavior, and who are completely opposed to Net Neutrality. If we didn't like this behavior, we'd vote for leaders who do something about it, but we didn't, so we're getting what we deserve.