When it comes to predictions, I’ll admit that I’m sometimes way off base. That’s probably why I wrote such a tame set of predictions back at the end of 2022. Looking at this article, there’s not a lot to take issue with. Still, at the end of every year I look back at the predictions I made the year before and let you know how I did. You can find year end articles by going to the “Archives” menu on this site, clicking on a year and on December. It’s usually one of the last articles of the year.
That said, here I go.
1. Pay TV roars back (grade: B+)
I predicted that it would be a great year for the pay TV industry as a whole in 2023. I will say I got that… about half right. It’s true that there were some pretty steep subscriber losses in 2023 in the pay-TV industry. It wasn’t helped by providers like WOW, Spectrum, and Frontier that are actively pushing people away from their pay TV products.
But at the same time I’m really pleased by the innovations I’ve seen in satellite TV. The two major US satellite providers are not going out without a fight. In 2023, both DIRECTV and DISH continued to innovate and while that’s not exactly “roaring back,” it’s still a big win.
2. Streaming does a faceplant (grade: A)
This was a pretty easy prediction to make at the end of ’22 and I’ll say I got this completely right. The big story for streaming was how little content there was, how prices kept rising, and how bad boys like David Zaslav seem content to literally destroy the streaming world from the inside out.
We saw Netflix crack down on password sharing, Paramount forcibly move Showtime subscribers to a combined app, and most of the Black Friday “deals” were either for the ad-supported service or weren’t available to existing subscribers. And do I even need to talk about the dumpster fire that Max has become? It seems cliche to even try.
3. ATSC 3.0 / 4K Over-the-Air won’t be there (grade: A)
Again, this was a pretty safe swing. The so-called next generation of TV broadcasting hasn’t really seen wide adoption even though we’ve been talking about it since 2014. Still, even I couldn’t have predicted that a big player like LG would leave the space, throwing the entire future of ATSC 3.0 into doubt.
The sole bit of good news for ATSC 3.0 was that the FCC did extend its testing period, which was set to expire in July. At least that’s something.
4. Cell boosters keep growing (grade: B+)
Kind of a tame and vague prediction here. The cell booster industry thrived in 2023, but we didn’t see a rush of new hardware. Today’s boosters work with LTE as well as low-band 5G, so there isn’t much of a need for change. Still, with the FCC now working full steam, companies like weBoost will probably roll out new boosters in ’24.
5. Mobile and marine internet starts to shine (Grade: A-)
I’ll call this a big win. This year, Starlink rolled out mobile and marine plans. They aren’t cheap, and in most cases they aren’t unlimited. But they are there. RVers who go far off the beaten track and boaters who go more than 10 miles offshore can still get high-speed internet, which was very hard to do in the past.
At the same time, we saw products from Intellian, Viasat, KVH, weBoost, and others that made the “land-based mobile” internet experience better for everyone. I’ll say that this prediction came true, period.
Final grade: A-
Yeah, my predictions weren’t that crazy. No, I didn’t take any big swings. But on the other hand I did a pretty good job of predicting where the market would go this year. Let’s see if I do as well for ’24. Tune in, in another 365 days. I’ll tell you how well my ’24 predictions went.
In the meantime, if you’re ready to upgrade your home, business, boat, or RV to the latest tech, call the experts at Signal Connect! We’re here for you during East Coast business hours. If it’s after hours, no problem! Fill out the form below and we’ll get right back to you.
