Ad-supported Disney+ is now a part of all Charter Communications' Spectrum TV Select packages at no extra cost, Charter and Disney said Thursday. The streaming service's availability is the result of a distribution agreement the two reached in September (see 2309110034). Tom Montemagno, Charter executive vice president-programming acquisition, said that as the video industry evolves, the cabler is "committed to including direct-to-consumer apps like Disney+" with its Spectrum service.
Wall Street might start looking at cable growth in 2024 as "a game of inches with growth and investment narratives dependent on short-term promotions and competitor offers rather than structural drivers," Barclays said in a note Thursday. Price hikes will likely be a focus again for the telecom industry in 2024 as they were during the past few years. Barclays also said a slowdown in cable subscriber growth due to issues such as competition from new entrants in a low-growth environment is likely to be exacerbated by Verizon and T-Mobile having greater access to spectrum for fixed wireless. An additional worry for cable is that AT&T is moving further into fixed wireless. Traditionally, cable grew through speed upgrades and price hikes. With Comcast and Charter offering minimum speeds "way higher than needed for most households," pricing becomes more important, Barclays said. However, price hikes come with trade-offs, it added, pointing to increased fixed wireless competition and wireless-only growth.