Cord-cut

Verizon is "disrupting itself" by making cable TV less painful for customers

Snacks / Friday, January 10, 2020

If you can't sell it... Subscriptify-it. Verizon claims it just "disrupted the cable industry" by ending mandatory 12-month contracts for cable TV and eliminating "extra" fees (they still want normal fees). The goal is to revive its Fios business (fun fact: Fios is an abbreviation for fiber optic service), which is doing fine selling internet — not as fine selling cable TV.

  • The status quo: Brutal customer service, inflexible contracts with early termination fees, and (more) fees that make your $80 service cost $100. That's cable TV.
  • The result: Cord-cutting rages ahead as TV bingers save $$$ using their internet to stream instead — 67K customers ditched Verizon cable TV just last quarter.
  • Verizon's new goal: Slow down cord-cutting by becoming more like the streaming industry.

"Mix & Match"... That's the name of Verizon's new Fios offer — the idea is to make your cable/internet service totally flexible from month to month, with changable channel bundles and upgrade/downgradable internet speed. You know, control of what you're buying without needing to commit for 12 months (it's 2020. Commitment is scary).

Cable is a classic "pros before cos" industry... (profits before customers). Amazon is loved by customers because one of its key values is "customer obsession." Cable is profit obsessed — using its local monopoly to squeeze out your money with brutal year-long contracts and fees ($10/month equipment charge?). Thanks to competition from streaming, Cable's pros before cos strategy is dying.

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