LETTER FROM THE AMERICAS
Charter execs credit Xumo with helping them turn the tide in the video business or at least stemming their losses. Indeed, the MSO surprisingly added 44,000 video subs in the final quarter of 2025 and then lost only 60,000 video customers in this year’s first quarter, a huge improvement from its year-earlier results. “It’s the best video package that we’ve had in decades,” Charter CFO Jessica Fischer boasted at an investors conference last fall. “Ultimately, we’re not going back. We’re not going to make customers pay twice for this content again.” Market analysts agree. Charter’s video bundling strategy is “showing up in the numbers,” MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett declared in a recent CordCutting report. “Charter’s video business is single- handedly rolling back the clock…Might we finally see the media companies get more serious about re-bundling?” Other cablecos, especially the smaller ones, are taking a very different tack, going so far as ditching the video business altogether. Instead of offering their own standalone video services and packages, they are encouraging their broadband subscribers to use third-party apps to get their desired video content. Take Cable One, for example. Under former CEO Julie Laulis, the sixth largest U.S. operator adopted a “broadband first” strategy several years ago, focusing heavily on high-margin broadband and
Saturated market, jaded consumers
Yet, at the same time, even such leading vMVPDs as YouTube, Futo, Sling TV, and Philo are now running into choppy waters too. As a group, the virtual video providers shed a jaw-dropping 948,000 subs in the first quarter, according to the Cord-Cutting Monitor. That represents a steep decline from their already sizable loss of 722,000 video subs a year earlier, reducing their combined total to 21.33 million customers. Stiff competition YouTube TV, while still the most popular streaming video service, suffered the biggest losses in that sector, shedding a record 350,000 subs in the quarter. Analysts attributed much, if not all, of that drop to the end of the National Football League (NFL) regular season, a highly popular draw on YouTube and other outlets. But it still sent a stark warning sign that streaming video may have topped out too. In another sign of possible video overload, U.S. consumers now seem to be spending less on video services than they once did. In a recent report, TiVo found that average total spending on video services has started slipping for the first time. “Consumers appear to be waving the white flag,” the report noted. “The number of services has seemingly topped out and consumers, especially those from high-income households, have become increasingly cost-conscious.”
So, given all these dispiriting trends, how are North American operators dealing with video’s seemingly fading fortunes? For one thing, several large operators are creating simpler and cheaper video subscription packages to retain customers or lure them back. Comcast started doing exactly that last December, introducing standard video packaging and pricing plans throughout its U.S. territories. The national, no-contract plans offer five service tiers, with prices ranging from $65 to $135 per month. “Like we did with Xfinity Internet, we’ve simplified and re-imagined our video packages, making it easy and hassle- free for our customers to enjoy great content on the best and most innovative entertainment experience,” Steve Croney, CEO of Comcast’s Connectivity and Platforms division, told Light Reading last December. For another, the big cablecos are crafting new, more compelling video products and bundles. A prime example is Xumo, the national streaming video venture created by Comcast and Charter. Xumo offers a “next-generation” streaming platform, including scores of linear and on-demand channels, various video devices, gaming services and other goodies packaged together.
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SEPTEMBER 2026 Volume 48 No.3
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