On The Rock
Top Themes of the Week
Recent headlines have underscored significant pricing shifts in the media and broadcast landscape. Brace yourselves—more price increases might be looming. However, customers are becoming increasingly sensitive to these rises, given the plethora of hikes they've already faced.
Comcast CMCSA 0.00%↑ is reportedly gearing up for TV and Internet price hikes as early as Dec 18:
TV service: +$6/month
Broadcast TV fees: +$4/month
Regional sports fees: +$1/month
Bundles of premium channels: +$2-4/month
Internet prices: +$4/month across all packages
Home protection fees: +$5/month
Commencing in January, Comcast plans to affect subscription prices, impacting its 32.2 million users. The company cites soaring programming costs as the primary impetus, while focusing on cost management and broadband network investments.
T-Mobile TMUS 0.00%↑ is also contemplating Internet price hikes. At the UBS Global TMT Conference, CEO Mike Sievert hinted at potential rate adjustments over the coming year, aiming to augment business value—signaling a probable price hike.
Verizon VZ 0.00%↑ introduced a five-year price lock guarantee for its 5G Home Internet services for a limited period. In contrast to the industry norm of two-year price locks, Verizon's offering extends to five years but exclusively for new customers. The deal concludes on Jan 17, 2024.
AI Innovation
OpenAI faces new challengers. Google's GOOGL 0.00%↑ Gemini LLM is outperforming GPT-3.5 and even GPT-4 in some benchmarks.
Meanwhile, an "AI Alliance" led by IBM and Meta aims to democratize AI research and challenge the dominance of established players. This group will focus on open-source development and collaboration.
Meta META 0.00%↑ continues to make waves in the AI space. Their "Imagine with Meta" platform allows users to create images with just a natural language description.
Meta AI, the company's virtual assistant, has received new features, including "reimagine" and support for Reels. Additionally, Meta's AI characters are now fully launched in the US, allowing users to interact with them on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.