I'm pretty sure the channels don't even have to be contiguous since they can do channel bonding.
On Thursday, October 2, 2014, Adam Moffett via Af <[email protected]> wrote: > > I think they're getting more like 30mbps in a 5mhz channel now, with a > guardband. Here's a little tidbit from Wikipedia: > DOCSIS 3.1 Released October 2013, plans support capacities of at least > 10 Gbit/s downstream and 1 Gbit/s upstream using 4096 QAM > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrature_amplitude_modulation>. The new > specs will do away with 6 MHz and 8 MHz wide channel spacing and instead > use smaller (20 kHz to 50 kHz wide) orthogonal frequency-division > multiplexing > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthogonal_frequency-division_multiplexing> > (OFDM) subcarriers; these can be bonded inside a block spectrum that could > end up being about 200 MHz wide.[5] > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS#cite_note-5> > > That's a lotta capacity if they can dump enough TV channels to free up a > contiguous 200mhz. > > That's what I was thinking as well. The comments about margin pressure > were interesting. Carrying TV impacts that significantly, plus as you say, > each HD TV channel eats about 6 Mbps of cable capacity. 100 channels = 600 > Mbps. > > bp > > > On 10/2/2014 7:38 AM, Adam Moffett via Af wrote: > > I might do the same thing if I was a cable company with a couple hundred > subscribers. > Or maybe only carry channels I could get free or cheap. > > They ought to be able to carry a few gbps on their coax if they dropped TV > and ran DOCSIS 3 on every channel. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Jay Fuller - Cyber Broadband Inc > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');> > *To:* Cyber Broadband Inc. > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');> > *Sent:* Thursday, October 02, 2014 12:42 AM > *Subject:* more cable companies cut the tv cord > > > More Cable Companies Take TV Off Menu > 4 hrs ago - AP > > A growing group of small cable-TV providers are realizing that both they > and their customers can live without expensive TV channels. > > Of the 100 million homes in the U.S. that subscribe to pay TV, about 14% > are served by smaller companies that have a million or fewer customers. In > some cases, they serve fewer than 100. Faced with rising programming costs, > some of those companies—such as Ringgold Telephone Co. in Georgia and BTC > Broadband in Bixby, Okla.—have pulled the plug on TV service altogether, > preferring to simply focus on Internet and phone service. > > Others, meanwhile, are dropping major groups of channels to manage their > costs. The latest is Suddenlink Communications, an operator that serves > about one million customers, which says it plans to dropViacom Inc.'s TV > channels, including Nickelodeon and MTV, at midnight Tuesday. Suddenlink > says it has already signed long-term contracts with other channels to fill > the Viacom channels' slots. > > The shift poses a potential threat to big media companies. These cable > providers are tiny compared with industry titans like Comcast Corp., but > the fees they pay media companies for rights to carry programming add up. > Cable channel owners—which include major media companies such as Walt > Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc.—this year will collect a total of $35 > billion in license fees, according to SNL Kagan. But that figure could > erode if more small players give up on offering customers the big TV > bundle. > > After seven years of selling customers cable-TV services, BTC Broadband > got out of that business late last year and now provides just broadband and > phone services. The Oklahoma company, which had been serving about 420 TV > subscribers, decided it simply couldn't afford to keep paying rising fees > to carry a basic lineup of channels including ESPN, TNT and MTV. > > BTC President Scott Floyd estimated that if the company continued to pass > on rising programming costs to consumers and maintained its thin profit > margins, by 2016 cable-TV bills would rise to $130 from about $60. > > "I think the TV model is broken," said Mr. Floyd. > > In five years, operators representing about 5 million pay-TV > subscribers—5% of current pay TV households—will "no longer be doing > business the way they do today with video," estimates Rich Fickle, chief > executive of the National Cable Television Cooperative, a consortium that > negotiates programming deals on behalf of about 915 small cable-TV > providers. > > A loss of 5% of households in a few years could shave off about $2.4 > billion in revenue for basic cable networks alone, which by 2018 would be > raking in about $47 billion in carriage fees, according to SNL Kagan > estimates. > > "The change in the market is going to come from the bottom," said NCTC's > Mr. Fickle. Bigger pay-TV companies like Comcast and DirecTV aren't likely > to make similar moves away from pay-TV service, he said, because they enjoy > better profit margins and are busy pursuing big mergers. > > Some operators say they are gradually being pushed out of the TV business > as subscribers drop their expensive TV subscriptions and watch shows on > cheaper Internet video services. > > Those who have exited completely say that while many customers switched to > satellite service, a growing number simply migrate to online video. > > Missouri-based Boycom Cablevision Inc. has sold cable-TV service since the > early 1990s, but now counts only 1,000 TV customers out of its total 5,000 > subscribers. "We have truly morphed into a broadband-only provider in a lot > of our markets," says Patty Boyers, co-founder of Boycom. > > Tom Might, chief executive of Graham Holdings Co.'s CableOne, which serves > nearly 700,000 subscribers in 19 states, says reducing emphasis on video > service in favor of broadband has led to higher profits, even though some > customers were lost in the process. The "trends are kind of hard to fight," > he said. "Better to join them and make your profit where the business is > growing." > > Since 2008, small telecom companies representing about 53,000 customers > have shut off cable-TV services or gone out of business, according to the > NCTC. Over the last three years, the number of customers affected by such > decisions has accelerated. > > At least one midsize operator, Cablevision Systems Corp., which serves > nearly 3 million TV customers in the New York metropolitan area, has said > it can imagine a day when it no longer sells television and makes broadband > its primary offering. > > Some media executives shrug off the threat, saying that cable-TV providers > have been complaining for a decade about programming costs. They say their > businesses don't face any real risk from the small companies that have been > disconnecting service thus far. > > Media companies could get ahead of any broader decline, cable-TV > executives say, by changing their model of selling full bundles of channels > to operators, and instead selling just their popular channels in smaller > bundles or on an a la carte basis—something they have so far resisted > doing. > > Many small operators are cutting back on expensive TV channels they don't > view as vital to include in their packages, as Suddenlink says it is > planning to do. Earlier this year, providers representing some 900,000 > households opted out of an NCTC-brokered carriage deal with Viacom, > choosing instead to drop its channels. > > Those operators had braced to lose as much as 10% of their customers, but > overall they have lost less than 2% of their base, according to the NCTC. > > Mr. Fickle says other members are emboldened by the Viacom episode and may > take a similar approach in deals with big programmers that are coming up > for renewal with the NCTC, if the terms don't make sense for them. > > Operators' shift away from TV could accelerate if more customers fed up > with rising bills "cut the cord" themselves. Last year, the pay TV industry > contracted for the first time, losing 167,000 customers as people > disconnected service, according to MoffettNathanson research. > > Several small operators believe the pay-TV model will splinter and reset > itself online, with TV channels and big distributors such as Comcast or > Dish Network Corp. selling programming directly to consumers through apps, > much like Netflix does today. > > Such a reality has long been considered a threat, but executives like > Steve Weed, CEO of WaveDivision Holdings LLC, a West Coast cable company, > envision a new business opportunity for small cable operators to supply > customers with Web TV boxes and manage a storefront of streaming-video apps. > > Dealing with customer complaints about TV service—which account for most > service calls—would be a thing of the past. "We'll go from being the bad > guy to the good guy," Mr. Weed said. > > > http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/more-cable-companies-take-tv-off-menu/ar-BB6Hl0Z > > > > > > > > >
