Becoming Less Evil: The MVPDs Newfound Focus On Customers

Originally published at TVREV.com where you can always find the best insights into the rapidly changing television industry.

Looking back on 2015 and all the amazing changes the year has wrought for the television industry,  one under-the-radar trend stands out as it’s one of the most unexpected as well as one of the most significant stories this year.

And that’s the fact that (for the most part) the nation’s MVPDs have decided to make a concerted effort to be less evil.

That’s not as snarky a statement as it might seem: for years, MVPDs have dominated the list of the 10 Most Hated Companies In America.   And if you asked the Cord Cutter Chorus why they thought people were leaving pay TV, the answer usually had something to do with the tone deafness and general unresponsiveness of Big Cable.

The decision to be more consumer friendly (which sounds a lot more positive than “less evil”) can be seen in things like Comcast’s entire X1 ecosystem, with its revamped user-friendly interface;  in Verizon’s decision to allow users of it’s FIOS Mobile TV Everywhere app to access everything on their DVR and every channel on their set top box; and in Dish, Comcast, Verizon, Cox and others decisions to create a proprietary streaming service that caters to people who don’t want to pay for a traditional cable bundle.

These changes are notable because they indicate that the MVPDs are finally starting to think about their customers and the fact that they’re not hostages, that consumers have choices, and that consumers who are feeling the love also feel a lot less hesitant about opening their wallets and upgrading to new and better services. These may not be the most idealistic reasons to start to focus on customer service, but they’re a start.

This change in attitude is important too, because as Nielsen rolls out TAM, its OTT ratings system, next month, TV Everywhere is going to take off and that’s going to give the MVPDs an opportunity to introduce the better interfaces and more customer-centric experiences they claim they’ve been wanting to roll out (but were hobbled by legacy legal agreements and antiquated set top boxes.)

Similarly, we predict that the MVPDs will also start to offer up streaming services like Netflix and Hulu and standalone network apps like SeeSo and HBO Now to their broadband customers. This will essentially make cord-cutting a non-issue (you’ll be in their ecosystem either way) and that in itself (while admittedly self-preservationist) is another reason they are going to appear more customer friendly.

To be clear, we are not predicting that the MVPDs will suddenly become big cuddly balls of customer love. They are large corporations created by a series of mergers and acquisitions and come with all the attendant problems of their inceptions. Cuddly is a long way off.

What we are predicting though, is that they will become less evil enough to start disappearing from the Most Hated Companies list. And that this change will make watching television a much better experience for everyone, most notably the folks at home. One of the MVPDs biggest problems has been the disconnect between the high prices they are charging and the low-end products they are delivering, particularly around user experience. Giving consumers a service that feels like it should cost $125/month will go a long way towards correcting that perception. The new TV Everywhere apps, in particular, will give them a real opportunity to impress consumers.

Let’s just hope they don’t mess it up.