Looking to get a better bang for their communications buck, Ofcom's annual communications report revealed that U.K. consumers are increasingly adopting the triple play communications bundle that incorporates TV, broadband and voice. Analyzing data from the beginning of 2008 through the first quarter of 2009, the report revealed that 46 percent of consumers bought more than one service in the first quarter of this year, a 39 percent increase from the first quarter of 2008. The dominant bundle was broadband and fixed voice, which saw 44 percent uptake. Meanwhile, 34 percent of consumers took the triple play of package of voice, data and broadband TV.
These factors helped large U.K.-based service providers such as BT, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media cushion the blow of the lagging economy and reduced service prices. Bundled communications packages have benefits for consumers and service providers. For consumers, the benefit is they can save on their communications spend with discounted services, while service providers can increase brand loyalty and Average Revenue per User (ARPU). And while consumer communications spending dipped to $156 a month as the prices of mobile, broadband and landline calls declined, television was less affected due to the rollouts of HDTV and video on-demand services.
For more:
- Wall Street Journal has this article
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