Surfing the net at faster speeds and having an always on connection are great benefits of the ATHM service - but it's difficult to find other compelling reasons for having a cable modem connection. Indeed, for dedicated net users no other reason is necessary. This fact alone will guarantee ATHM a future in BB - as long as they stay independent. The question, for us is, is this a good investment?
Considering only the ISP function of ATHM in the following:
With dialup, there is a certain amount of time investment one must make before going on line. Therefore, many things that a BB user might do - for instance, check the weather forecast, or movie listings - a dial up users would not do. This makes the service compelling, but in an environment of open access is this worth choosing one ISP over another? I don't think so, therefore, without other compelling reasons to choose ATHM as your ISP, margins will shrink.
If you compare the ATHM site with Yahoo's, or AOL's there is little to distinguish them. They all offer the same basic content. Therefore, the choice of frequented site comes down to which interface one is most comfortable with or which interface has been customized to one's taste to a sufficient extent that they wouldn't want to switch to another.
I see ATHM's BB site as the key to their future success after open access - and much of that success will be predicated upon the usefulness and customizability of the interface.
There is however another realm of BB and that is the set top box. Where is ATHM in this landscape? TJ's comments from last week imply that he sees this as the future of BB - but he didn't define ATHM's address in this landscape. But it appears to be their next generation product:
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