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There is an ongoing debate about the true impact of video cord cutting. One side of the argument says consumers are actively cutting the cord to save money or because they consume video differently than the traditional ‘smorgasbord’ channel line-up model.

The counter argument points to the data and says cord cutting is simply not a major concern. The debate is not stopping service providers from experimenting though, with AT&T’s latest broadband and HBO bundle as an example.

AT&T is offering a bundle of 18 Mbps broadband, a very limited local channel line-up, and a HBO subscription, which almost looks like an HBO a la carte option. The bundle is priced at $40 per month and includes Wi-Fi service (in and out of the home) as well as U-verse DVR service. AT&T is also highlighting the TV Everywhere aspect of the offer, which allows subscribers to watch the HBO GO app on the go.

Subscribers can opt for a faster 45 Mbps broadband tier and add HD capacity for additional monthly fees. With this option, AT&T hopes to attract broadband subscribers who are not interested in full blown channel line-ups, but do want HBO and a DVR. Subscribers can then augment their content choices with over-the-top (OTT) options from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and others. AT&T gets to place a set-top box (STB) in the home and entice these subscribers to use their VOD and other revenue generating services, perhaps as an alternative to Netflix.

The promotion expires July 5, 2014.

Viewing TV programming over the Internet is growing, as is demand for more devices and more online content. And consumers are increasingly willing to pay for better access to content, which is reshaping the landscape of the media and entertainment industries, according to the fourth annual multinational “Accenture Digital Consumer Survey.”

Accenture surveyed 23,000 consumers in 23 countries. According to Accenture’s findings, 25 percent of respondents indicated the intention to purchase a connected TV over the next 12 months. Another 11 percent said they intend to replace an existing connected TV, and 12 percent said they plan to purchase a tablet, “expanding the market of addressable screens even further,” Accenture highlights in a press release.

“If consumers act on these intentions, it will represent remarkable growth in the addressable market for online video,” Gavin Mann, Accenture’s global broadcast industry lead, was quoted as saying. “This rapid digital expansion is fostering a new era of personalized TV experiences with the number of video-centric connected devices predicted to surpass the world’s population by 2017.”

Nearly half (44 percent) of all respondents are watching full-length movies and TV shows over the Internet daily, while 39 percent are doing so weekly, Accenture’s research reveals. That’s despite 86 percent reporting streaming interruptions and 71 percent noting considerable slowdowns in viewing. Accenture also found that consumers would prefer seamless bundling of their online video services. That was expressed when they selected Google, Apple and Samsung, in that order, as a preferred non-traditional broadcaster capable of delivering Pay-TV, VOD and Catch-up TV even though those aren’t core capacities of any of those companies at present, Accenture noted.

Although most are not known outside their local -- primarily rural -- communities, small cable companies offer advanced communications services to 14% of US homes, according to a report issued from the American Cable Association.

The ACA advocates for more than 800 small cable company members, who have an average 36% market share in their serving areas according to the ACA. Understanding the role that ACA members play in offering video, data and voice services in rural areas is important at a time when policymakers are in the process of transforming today’s voice-focused Universal Service program to a Connect America Fund focused on broadband. Somewhat less than half (43%) of ACA members are small telecommunications companies that have cable operations. A slightly higher percentage (44%) is comprised of traditional cable operators, while 13% are municipalities or other types of organizations.

The fastest growing segment of the online video market, mobile video, may make up half of all online video content consumed by 2016, Ooyala highlights in its “Global Video Index, Q4 2013” report.

The amount of time viewers spent watching online video on tablets and mobile devices has skyrocketed 719 percent since 4Q 2011 and 160 percent year over year since 4Q 2012. Combined, mobile devices and tablets accounted for 18 percent of online video time spent in October and reached over 26 percent as of end-December, a rise of 43 percent, according to the executive summary of Ooyala’s latest report.

The stellar success of mobile online video, Ooyala states in a press release, “validates the opportunity for broadcasters to build and monetize cross-device experiences, and for advertisers to reach more audiences as mobile and tablet viewers multiply.”

Long-distance service providers that have been complaining about rural call completion reporting requirements may find that task simplified now that vendors have stepped in to address that need.

At least one major network operator has invested in a third-party product that automates rural call completion reporting. Analytics provider TEOCO announced that an unnamed tier one service provider has purchased its Rural Call Completion Analytics Solution. And in an interview TEOCO Executive Director Derek Canfield said the company has other customers for the product as well.

TEOCO’s rural call completion offering is available as an optional module for the company’s Analytics Platform or as an outsourced service. At least one other vendor has an offering that automates rural call completion reporting, but Canfield said TEOCO’s offering is unique in that it also provides root cause analytics.

“Clients have the ability to look at call completion along dimensions such as wholesale customers, vendors they may choose in routing [calls], or their own network equipment,” said Canfield.

AT&T’s plans for TDM-to-IP transition trials are clashing with efforts to de-regulate telecom -- an initiative the company also has been championing.

Consumer advocates and ADT, one of the nation’s largest alarm companies, are asking Kentucky lawmakers to delay passing a telecom deregulation bill until the TDM-to-IP transition trials, to be overseen by the FCC, are completed, reports Public News Service. According to an AT&T proposal, TDM-to-IP transition trials would begin in late 2014 or early 2015 and run into 2017. The Kentucky bill would allow major phone companies to stop providing landline service in parts of the state, Public News Service reports. If the bill were to pass, consumers would have to rely on VoIP over a broadband connection or a cellular service. And if that were to occur, “there is some likelihood that alarm systems and/or medical alert systems may not be able to send signals to ADT’s monitoring centers,” ADT Vice President of Industry Relations Steve Shapiro told Public News Service.

Three years after a Tennessee power company kicked off the gigabit network trend with the announcement of a residential gigabit network in Chattanooga, more electric utilities are getting in on the trend.

Missouri electric cooperative Co-Mo Comm said it will launch gigabit service in August. And Habersham EMC, a northeast Georgia electric cooperative, said it is increasing the speed its broadband network will support to a gigabit. Habersham EMC calls the service Trailwave and will charge $99 a month for the service. The company also has a 50 Mbps offering for $49.95.

A Federal Communications Commission workshop was organized with the goal of offering insight on how the FCC should allocate funding for rural broadband trials and ultimately, how a broadband Connect America Fund for rate of return carriers would be structured.

The workshop drew on a wide range of stakeholders and offered a lot of food for thought, but also illustrated that considerable more work will need to be done before the FCC can answer those questions. The total number of entities that have expressed interest in participating in the rural broadband trials has now reached 997, FCC officials said.

A workshop panel on rural broadband build-out strategies included representatives from several types of entities that have expressed interest in participating in the rural broadband trials, including:

• a municipality (Greenlight Community Broadband of Wilson (NC))
• a rural incumbent telco (Golden West Telecommunications)
• a utility co-operative (Co-Mo Comm)
• a wireless Internet service provider (Highspeedlink.net)
• a satellite broadband service provider (Hughes Network Systems)
• a rural cable company (Troy Cablevision)
• a large price cap carrier (AT&T)
• a cellular carrier that has moved into fiber-to-the-home (C Spire)

New York City-based startup company ASA Networks sees great potential for TV white spaces technology.

The wireless Internet service provider is currently trialing the technology in Gallatin, a rural area in upstate New York, and plans to expand service to other communities in the future.

“We have it working and it works for non-line of sight,” said Joe Plotkin, director of marketing for ASA Networks. When Plotkin and colleagues made a presentation about TV white spaces equipment at an upstate event prior to making their white spaces plans “we were swamped by town supervisors and county executives saying ‘help us,’” said Plotkin.

In communities like Gallatin the only way of accessing the Internet until now has been via spotty DSL and cellular service, Plotkin said. Plotkin was apparently talking about the upcoming voluntary TV broadcast spectrum auction which will enable broadcasters to relinquish spectrum in exchange for sharing in the auction proceeds. The band plan for that spectrum band has not yet been determined -- and a key issue is how much of the spectrum will be available for unlicensed use.

[Commentary] The latest research from Leichtman Research Group reveals that the pay-TV industry lost a whopping 0.1% of subscribers to video cord cutting in 2013. That equates to 105K subscribers from a total multichannel pay-TV universe of 94.6 million subscribers.

Hardly the crisis of video cord cutting that gets much of the headlines these days, at least according to LRG’s analysis. The news is somewhat sobering for the traditional cable MSO industry according to LRG. Collectively, the largest cable MSOs lost 1.7 million video subscribers in 2013. But telecommunications television gains of 1.46 million and DBS net adds of 170K offset the cord cutting trend.

The real impact probably won’t come for some time though. From my vantage point, the issue to be concerned about is not cord cutting, it’s ‘cord nevering.’ That is, younger people who are now in their teens and twenties who lost interest in pay-TV a while ago, and are unlikely to subscribe to a pay-TV service as they move into head-of-household status. At least not subscribe to a multichannel video package as we define it today. For them, a hefty broadband pipe into the home and on the go may fuel their video appetite through a broadband TV type package, the business and revenue details of which are still being worked out.