Business Bytes
Renee Oricchio

Greed Is NOT Good

 

Why are so many people cancelling their cable subscriptions these days? In an earnings call this week, Comcast had to acknowledge it alone has lost some 275,000 subscribers this past quarter and 600,000 for the year. Its executives fell short of admitting its due to so-called "cord cutters" thumbing their nose at the expense of cable in favor of cheaper solutions like Netflix or Hulu.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Yes, the economy is undoubtedly driving some customers away. But, it's also true that some people are reaching the tipping point choosing to take their chances with what's streaming on the Internet tonight.

In that same earnings call, Comcasters admitted the average subscriber is spending about $130 a month on their services. $130 a month? C'mon! That's just plain greedy.

Back in the '80s, the mythical movie character Gordon Gecko of Wall Street fame immortalized the words, "Greed is good," and that became the mantra for a generation of real Wall Street types.

We see how that worked out!

For the record, greed is not good!

Greed doesn't build customer loyalty. It only builds resentment.

Greed is not a long-term plan. It's a short-term strategy to boost the bottom line.

Good pricing is not "what the market will bear - when we have you over a barrel."

Good pricing doesn't require a barrel.

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Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio