Telcos Need More Than TV And Broadband For ROI -- According to Forrester Research, Telcos, faced with a growing list of competitors and rising capital expenses, are looking to TV services to offset shrinking core revenues. But even coupled with voice and broadband Internet services, TV revenues will not recoup the costs of a multi-billion dollar broadband upgrade. Telcos will need to add a myriad of other services like home security, network-based storage, and video surveillance services to make a profit. Telcos core voice and data businesses have taken a beating. The mean monthly spend on local services has stagnated at $29.17 down from $31.70 in 2003. Monthly long distance spending has fallen from $18.33 to $12.75 during the same time. It will get worse, because VoIP promises to drive prices closer to $30 for unlimited local and nationwide long distance.
The global streaming industry has spent the better part of a decade chasing subscriber counts as the primary metric of success. That era is now formally over. New market data from Omdia confirms that the industry has crossed a decisive threshold; one that shifts the competitive playing field from growth-at-all-costs to monetization discipline. For senior executives navigating media, advertising, and technology strategy, the implications extend well beyond entertainment. A Historic Revenue Crossover Online video revenue increased 13.5 percent to $176 billion in 2025, while pay-TV revenue declined 4 percent to $170 billion; marking the first time in the industry's history that streaming has surpassed legacy pay-TV in revenue terms. This is not a rounding error or a statistical artifact; it represents the culmination of more than a decade of structural disruption to the traditional broadcast and cable TV model. Global subscriptions to online video services reached 2.24 billion by the ...