Cable providers and telecom companies are changing their strategy in how they approach customers, according to a double play bundle report from GlobalData. The firm says that changes in demand and cost considerations are leading providers to focus on double play rather than triple play offers and to emphasize Internet connectivity to drive sales.
Triple play bundles now account for 34% of service packages offered online, a seven percent decline since 2019, according to GlobalData’s “@Home Bundles US.”
Two approaches – triple play bundles and Internet/entertainment double play bundles now account for about 80% of online offers. Overall, connectivity is at the core of service bundle offers.
‘”The triple-play offer of internet, entertainment and phone service has not disappeared, but service providers are increasingly focusing their marketing on double-play packages,” GlobalData Senior Consumer Services Analyst Courtney Rudd said in a press release about the double play bundle report. “Reasons for this include mobile phone service reducing consumer home phone needs and streaming entertainment services eating into consumer pay-TV needs. The result is less demand for triple-play bundling. If you look at 2020 alone, there was a sharp increase of internet-plus-entertainment and internet-plus-voice bundle offers between March and April and that held steady since.”
Verizon’s Mix & Match on Fios. offer, announced in early 2020, is an example of a provider downplaying the triple play. Customers were offered three plans: 100 Mbps ($39.99), 300 Mbps ($59.99) and gigabit ($79.99). Customers can add a video option – for a minimum monthly fee of $50 – to their plan. And while a phone option was another optional add-on for $20 a month, it was mentioned almost as an afterthought.
But while the GlobalData double play bundle report suggest that double play bundles are becoming increasingly popular, previous GlobalData research suggests that service providers could go further to improve customer satisfaction. The research firm reported in its “@Home—Bundles U.S. Month Pricing” report in September 2019 that U.S. cable and fixed telecom bundles cost as much as $45 more than advertised after various fees are added.
Joan Engebretson contributed to this report.
