| NOTAS: | "2017 was the year operators reassessed their place in the value chain. Operators are realizing they can't invest, or out-innovate over-the-top players, in all things. 2018 will be an extension of that. Competition and market saturation will be the main pressure points. Operators therefore need to know what services their customers' value, as well as factor in where new growth will come from (e.g., millennials). They need to be even more vigilant around bundling and pricing for new growth while keeping existing customers happy as tastes evolve toward perceived higher-value services, such as OTT TV. Operators by now should understand their place in the value chain, realizing whether they are an AT&T that can buy Time Warner or a Softbank that can buy a stake in Uber Technologies. But we would argue that operators still have a lot of investigation to do around really knowing their user base. The new digital consumer is upon us, more discerning than ever, valuing new services (e.g., OTT video, a mobile service) over legacy services (e.g., fixed voice, pay TV). The onus for operators is to keep abreast of these changing digital consumer tastes. First, that means they need to keep existing customers happy, renewing their multiplay services or enticing them with higher speeds or more value-added services. This is particularly the case in developed markets where fixed broadband penetration has reached saturation – in this case, a key trigger for customer nonrenewal is "how relevant is the bundle I have? Second – and this is where a lot of operators are failing – they need to consider where the new growth opportunities will come from. Today's millennials are unlikely to value full-blown large and expensive pay-TV services in their multiplay packages. In turn, operators need to segment to attract this customer group to help maintain growth. In short, it is about bundling relevant services for new use groups and even grasping the new reality: the rise of the mobile-only broadband and video consumer." |
