Verizon, breaker of the cable bundle? Not really

The good news is, someday soon “triple play” will mean something only to baseball fans. These days, though, cable-TV customers probably still know it better as the industry’s torture
device.
Triple-play bundles refer to long-term contracts with a company such as Comcast Corp. or Charter Communications Inc. that provide internet, television and landline-phone service for one “discounted” rate. These packages force you to have an old-school home-phone number, seemingly just for telemarketers to utilise, and dozens of TV channels you’ll never watch but will nevertheless subsidize. Meanwhile, all you really want is a fast internet connection to binge on Netflix and gain access to a handful of your favourite network shows.
But rejoice — there’s a movement afoot that may send triple-play bundles the way of the rotary telephone. Verizon Communications Inc. announced that its Fios division is ending these aggressive you’ll-take-it-all-and-you’ll-like-it bundles, allowing subscribers to better customise their plans with what it’s calling Fios Mix & Match. Users can choose among three different internet-speed options that range from $40 to $80 a month and several TV packages that run anywhere from $50 to $90 a month. No annual contracts, it says, and no surprise fees — well, sort of! After all, this wouldn’t be the cable and phone industry if there weren’t some doozies contained in the fine print: Some of the options do have an additional fee for a set-top box or router. A home phone line is a separate $20, to which you can kindly say, “no thank you.”
Verizon won’t be the last to give in and smash the bundle, at least for now. They’ve been in decline as an increasing number of customers switch to broadband-only service. There may be more than 50 million broadband-only US homes by 2023, which would make up about half of all pay-TV households, according to research by Geetha Ranganathan and Amine Bensaid, analysts for Bloomberg Intelligence. To stem the drop in revenue, the cable giants have been pushing video add-ons, the analysts said.
Verizon’s new Your Fios TV package for $50 a month allows subscribers to pick five channels, while Verizon arranges the other 120 channels. How many customers wish they could just take the five and call it a day? Moreover, streaming-video apps won’t necessarily lead to lower monthly bills either: Verizon’s mid-rate internet option (with router), plus Disney+, Netflix and HBO Max would cost a combined $110 a month My point is, the ideal video-app configuration may not be any cheaper than going for a triple play. That’s why bundles will live on, even if the traditional triple play won’t. If anything, bundles will likely be back en vogue later this year.

—Bloomberg