| By Amine ALLAM, the | |
According to a study by Aluma Insights, 85% of American households subscribed to high-speed Internet service at the end of 2021, compared to 72% ten years earlier.
This growing base of connected consumers has created a 15-year boon for a number of related industries, including SVoD services, connected TV equipment manufacturers and retailers that have depended on expanding the reach of residential broadband. to generate revenue and profit. But those good years seem to be coming to an end.
The rate at which broadband is spreading among US households is slowly declining, a sure sign that the service is approaching saturation according to this study. As this happens, the broadcast of connected TV and SVoD will also slow down, not because there are no new homes for sale – CTVs have a 23% headroom , SVoD by 32% – but because broadband additions beyond 85% penetration will be increasingly slow to materialize.
We’ve been tracking the spread of broadband for two decades, so the warning signs of this leveling were clear said Michael Greeson, founder and principal analyst of Aluma (formerly TDG). Unfortunately, that caught a lot of people off guard, including the country’s biggest SVoD, Netflix.
The study seems to ignore Starlink, which provides unlimited broadband and access to streaming without waiting for fiber to arrive. As for the observed slowdown, historical price inflation should be taken into consideration.
