All-in-one bundles aren't all that, according to the latest Light Reading poll

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

February 24, 2006

1 Min Read
LR Poll: Bundles Begone!

Not many are keen on having a phone company as their video provider, and all-in-one service bundles (phone, broadband, and video) may not be as big a deal to consumers as many believe, according to the latest Light Reading poll.

Nearly 60 percent of the respondents to the poll, Costly Cable, indicated that getting all communications services from one provider via a big bundle isn't important.

That's not good news to phone companies, which are counting on service bundles to help them provide a more complete offering than satellite TV providers and at a lower price than the cable MSOs. Speaking of buying services from cable providers, the poll had even more bad news for phone companies on that front.

Even though the poll's respondents said they felt cable prices were on the rise because of the lack of competition (53 percent) and greed (24 percent), only 21 percent said they would buy video content from a phone company, assuming the video quality were the same.

Instead, a full 31 percent of the poll takers said they'd prefer to buy video content from an Internet provider -- regardless of access method -- with the ability to store content on a local hard drive. That's even more than the 30 percent who say they would like to get their video service from cable providers.

But who gets to pick the channels? From the results so far, more poll takers want to pick their own channels instead of having their cable company choose programming packages for them.

But the poll's not over yet. You can still click here and cast your votes until midnight EST, on Monday, February 27.

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading

Read more about:

Omdia

About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like