Key Issues
Specific Finding of the FCC’s
12th Annual Video Competition Report:
March 2006
- The number of TV households and the number of video subscribers
increased in the past year. As of June 2005, there were 109.6
million TV households, compared to 108.4 million in June 2004.
Of that number, approximately 94.2 million TV households subscribe
to a video service, as compared to 92.2 million as of June 2004.
- Cable serves the largest percentage of MVPD subscribers, but
cable’s share of the MVPD market continued to decline. As of
June 2005, the FCC’s traditional measure indicates that 69.4
percent of MVPD subscribers received video programming from a
franchised cable operator, as compared to 71.6 percent as of
June 2004.
- Satellite subscribers comprise the second largest group of
MVPD households, representing 27.7 percent of total MVPD subscribers
as of June 2005, as compared to 25.1 percent in June 2004, an
increase of over 10 percent. DBS operators continue to add local-into-local
broadcast television service. In 167 of 210 television markets
(i.e., designated market areas, or DMAs), covering 97 percent
of all U.S. TV households, at least one DBS provider offers the
signals of local broadcast stations (local-into-local service).
- The number of MVPD subscribers choosing all other delivery
technologies decreased, representing 2.9 percent of all subscribers
in June 2005, as compared to 3.3 percent in June 2004.
- There are 15.36 million U.S. TV households that do not subscribe
to an MVPD service and thus rely solely on over-the-air broadcast
television for their video programming, representing 14 percent
of all U.S. TV households. The major broadcast networks now
provide their most popular programming in high-definition. Hundreds
of local stations are using their digital channels to provide
multicast programming, including news, weather, sports, religious
material, music videos and coverage of local musicians and concerts,
as well as foreign language programming.
- BSPs served approximately 1.4 million subscribers, as of June
2005, representing 1.5 percent of all MVPD households.
- Incumbent local exchange carriers (“ILECs”) have reported plans
to provide video service. The larger LECs have accelerated their
plans to roll out video services. Verizon has received franchises
from numerous local communities and began offering multichannel
video service, under the brand name “FiOS,” in several of them.
SBC is planning to deploy an IP-enabled broadband network called
“Project Lightspeed,” and Qwest and a number of smaller incumbent
LECs are offering, or preparing to offer, MVPD service over existing
telephone lines using VDSL or ADSL technologies.
- PCO subscribership has declined to one million subscribers
this year, a decrease of 9.1 percent from last year’s 1.1 million.
More than one-hundred electric and gas utilities provide video
service, 128 offered high-speed Internet access, 52 offered local
telephone service, and 42 offered long distance telephone service.
Of the 102 offering video services, 10 are offering video-on-demand
(VOD). Wireless cable systems provide video competition to incumbent
cable operators only on a limited basis. The number of wireless
cable subscribers has declined steadily from a peak of 1.2 million
in 1996 to approximately 100,000 as of March 2005, down from
an estimated 200,000 subscribers in April 2004.
- Several major cellular telephone companies are offering video
services through handheld devices such as mobile telephones.
Verizon Wireless rolled out V-Cast, a service that offers video
programming to cellular telephone users, in February 2005.
- The
amount of web-based video provided over the Internet continues
to increase significantly each year. The sale and rental of
home videos, including videocassettes and DVDs, offer consumers
an alternative to the premium and pay-per-view offerings of MVPDs.
Video-on-demand services provided by cable, DBS, and Internet
providers have emerged, in turn, as competitive alternatives
to home video.
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