Although DBS providers have established a three-year head start, they will lose their DVR edge over cable by 2006, predicts Parks Associates, in a new white paper.
The reason is not just because cable finally has integrated DVRs in its hands. According to Parks Associates, the main culprit for DBS will be its inability to overcome cable’s service bundling advantage.
Parks Associates forecasts that more than half of all DVRs deployed by service providers in 2006 will come from cable operators.
“Cable providers will increasingly dominate the DVR market,” said John Barrett, director of research for Parks Associates. “Their networks have a huge advantage — they can already offer telephone services, video-on-demand, TV, and Internet access. Satellite players and telcos have to combine their capabilities to do so, which makes it much more challenging in terms of bundling, billing, marketing, and overall execution of their business strategy.”
However, many telcos, faced with competitive threats from cable for their bread and butter voice subs, are making plans to add video to the mix on their own through advanced fiber network deployments or via legacy DSL networks.