Subscriber Study Shows Shifting Attitudes About Satellite Internet

What You’ll Learn

Innovative Systems’ annual Rural Subscriber Study asked participants new questions about LEO satellite providers indicating growing competition for rural ISPs.

Recorded Live at the 2025 NTCA Sales and Marketing Conference

Guest Speaker

Scott Meyer

Show Notes

More insights from the survey can be found here: Innovative Systems’ annual Rural Subscriber Study

Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.

Intro: A production of Pioneer Utility Resources. StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns: What do rural subscribers know and not know about their internet package? That’s what we’ll be talking about on this episode of The StoryConnect Podcast. My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer, and I’m joined on this episode once again by Scott Meyer, a marketing director with Innovative Systems. Scott, thanks so much for joining me.

Scott Meyer: It’s a pleasure to be here as always.

Andy Johns: Now, you are one of probably our most frequent guests on the show, and I’m glad that you’re on here because this is the 10th Annual Rural Subscriber Survey. That’s great. Y’all have a ton of data now to benchmark in the past and just all sorts of stuff. So it gets better and better every year. Thanks for being on.

Scott Meyer: My pleasure.

Andy Johns: So we are here live at the NTCA Marketing and Sales Conference. It’s kind of the epicenter of rural broadband marketing for the year, and we’re in New Orleans. So Scott, let’s go ahead and talk about the survey. What were some of the takeaways that you got? I know we’ll talk about the LEO satellite, you know, people’s attitudes there. But it sounds like overall what we’ve seen over the years is on the survey speed has been less important, and reliability has been more important. What are some of the things that stood out to you in this? Did that trend continue? And what kind of things stood out to you in this survey?

Scott Meyer: Well, I think what’s really interesting is the fact that 37% of the respondents to our study this year didn’t know what speed they have.

Andy Johns: Oh, interesting.

Scott Meyer: And that does create some vulnerability for rural broadband providers. And we dug a little bit deeper into the study and got some even more kind of, maybe slightly disturbing news.

Andy Johns: Oh. All right, let’s get to the disturbing news. I like the teaser. You got him hooked now. I was going to ask, you know, that’s interesting. Let’s come back to the disturbing news. It’s interesting to me that there was this huge effort last year to get these broadband labels out there for transparency so everybody would know what their speeds are. But a third of the folks surveyed don’t have any idea. That’s interesting to me.

Scott Meyer: Yeah, more than a third. And so that really does open the door for other competition because of their lack of knowledge and understanding. I mean, in the industry, you know, kind of a problem in our industry is we really understand a lot more about what the consumers get than they understand themselves.

Andy Johns: Very much so. One of those things, you know, with that knowledge gap you’re talking about, we throw around a lot of acronyms. One of those being LEO – the low Earth orbit satellites. And that was the first time you’ve asked about that on this year’s survey. So what did you find there?

Scott Meyer: This is the disturbing part.

Andy Johns: Is this the disturbing news?

Scott Meyer: This is the disturbing news.

Andy Johns: Okay.

Scott Meyer: So, you know, one of the things that we’ve been talking about, and we’ve been kind of sounding the alarm for a number of years. Obviously Starlink is a threat. But we really feel that at some point, and last week was a good indicator. And obviously this will end up being dated. But Amazon launched 27 birds last week, and they are going to offer an internet product. And they have way more value to offer than Starlink does. Starlink basically offers an internet product, but look at what Amazon offers. So back to the study, we framed up a question if a like Starlink or an Amazon offered you a comparable internet service at a decent price, would you consider taking it? And over 40% said they would consider taking it. And that’s where the 37% of rural Americans who don’t know their speed becomes a vulnerability issue for our broadband providers.

Andy Johns: Now, unpack that a little bit. When you’re combining those two layers of data, what is it that you mean – if they don’t know their speed, why do you think that makes them more vulnerable to maybe hop to the satellite providers?

Scott Meyer: Well, you know, we all know in the industry, Andy, that the gold standard is fiber.

Andy Johns: Sure.

Scott Meyer: But for most Americans, they just want the internet to do what they use it for.

Andy Johns: Exactly.

Scott Meyer: And so if Amazon can offer an internet product or Starlink or Verizon Home Internet can offer them a product that will do what they want it to do, and we all know the power that those fortune five hundreds have of promoting. They have the connections with offering, say, a free live TV product for a year or HBO Max or whatever. Well, those people that don’t know their speed, they say, “Well, hey, you know what? If I go to Amazon Internet, or I go to Starlink or Verizon Home Internet, you know, I’m going to get it for probably a better price, and I’m going to get free YouTube TV for a year.”

Andy Johns: Sure. Or whatever they bundle it together with. Yeah.

Scott Meyer: And so what happens is when those consumers get that product, if it does what they need to do, they don’t care what the speed is.

Andy Johns: Right.

Scott Meyer: And if they’re unhappy with it, they’ll switch back. But there’s going to be a percentage that will stay and will never go back to the real providers. That’s what we’re most concerned about.

Andy Johns: Interesting. I’m glad that y’all added that question in there, because that sounds like a real, you know, a real cause of concern, for sure. What are some of the other takeaways from the study? It sounded like folks, like you said, folks just need to get it to work. And what was the number? Was it $96 a month? I mean, there, folks, that was one of the things that from the survey that came out of the pandemic that folks are willing to pay to get reliable internet. They have to have it.

Scott Meyer: So we asked people that, you know, as a whole, and it was like 850 respondents, 28% said they would like a faster internet speed.

Andy Johns: Than what they have?

Scott Meyer: Yeah, and we’re willing to pay for it.

Andy Johns: Okay.

Scott Meyer: And that price point that they’re willing to pay was like $96 a month. Whereas the average internet service that they’re paying for now is, and I don’t have my notes in front of me, is somewhere around $69 to $70 a month. So there’s some money being left on the table by our providers, and there’s a willingness by a lot of their customers to upgrade to a faster internet speed.

Andy Johns: Interesting. So that’s a good target. Good target for folks. Because again, 28%. I mean, if you know, that helps the RPU out quite a bit if you’re able to crank those folks up.

Scott Meyer: Absolutely. Yeah, you’re right there.

Andy Johns: What other takeaways? Anything else stand out to you?

Scott Meyer: Well, you know, you know, video is kind of an interesting critter, so to speak.

Andy Johns: Right.

Scott Meyer: Some people love it. Some people don’t like it. But we reframed our question this year to make sure that the respondents understood what live TV is.

Andy Johns: Okay.

Scott Meyer: Because we thought there was some confusion because, I mean, you know, some people think Netflix is like live TV. Well, it’s not really. You know, so, you know, we framed it like YouTube TV. Your local provider has a product, you know, live streaming cable channels. And so –

Andy Johns: Antennas.

Scott Meyer: Yeah. Antennas. And so things kind of changed up quite a bit. And what we found was a significant number, like almost I think 75% of rural Americans have some type of live TV product, be it like YouTube TV, Hulu Live or IPTV, cable TV, streaming from their local provider. And so as we reframe that, we kind of drew some conclusions that, you know, only 16% are using an antenna. And we really feel, and we talked to some other people in the industry that are very knowledgeable. And they felt that because rural America has such a lack of coverage by the broadcast channel towers, that more rural Americans are going to subscribe to live TV than people in urban America. And my son lives outside of Denver, Colorado. He puts a little set of rabbit ears on his TV, and he gets 50 channels. Well, I live south of Mitchell, South Dakota. I put an antenna on top of my two story house. I get zero channels.

Andy Johns: All right.

Scott Meyer: And so we really think that when we reframed the question about live TV, that’s why the numbers went up. Because people still really have a desire for getting their local channels that they can’t get with an antenna.

Andy Johns: And so then what’s the next step of that? What does that mean? That means that some kind of a live offering from some provider through their local telco is viable?> Is that what those numbers would suggest or suggest, or what do those numbers mean to you?

Scott Meyer: Well, basically what those numbers mean to me is our providers need to be very careful about not having a lot of value added to their broadband pipe. If they’re offering just broadband, and we have heard this from a number of our customers, if they go into a CLEC situation, and they’re only coming in with broadband and they’ve got a big cable competitor that’s got video and broadband bundled, their take rates aren’t what they have expected to get.

Andy Johns: Right.

Scott Meyer: And it’s just human nature. If a consumer’s already got two from one company, why would they split off? Keep TV with ABC and go to XYZ and get broadband and have two bills?

Andy Johns: Especially when we know that the competitors at those cable companies are going to bump up their price to where it’s not. I mean, they can put it out of reach pretty much when to get that other, to split the services apart, like you’re saying. That it can all of a sudden be very expensive for broadband only. So, yeah, I agree with you. Tough to tough to compete there.

Scott Meyer: Really. Our overall takeaway from the study for broadband provider is do what you can to add as much value to your broadband pipe as possible. And it might not necessarily be TV. It could be some sort of security service. It could be, you know, cameras just all sorts –

Andy Johns: Managed Wi-Fi.

Scott Meyer: Managed Wi-Fi. Those are the types of things. You know, if you’re going in with just a pipe, and it’s especially given the competition with LEOs and the wireless companies’ home internet services, we’re concerned.

Andy Johns: That’s definitely sounds like, not to be the bearer of bad news, a lot of these times, the survey has a lot of good news for folks. This one has definitely got some worrying things in there for sure.

Scott Meyer: Yeah, I would think so. But I mean, the thing of it is, is that the local rural providers still provide white glove service. They serve better than any of these other national companies. There’s no question about that. So if they can recognize good ways to efficiently and profitably add value to their pipe, I think they’ll do just fine.

Andy Johns: Got it. Perfect. Scott, before we go, anything else in the survey? Any other results or anything else that stood out to you that you want to include?

Scott Meyer: Well, you know, I think the biggest thing is that right now, rural Americans, you know, there’s over 50% of rural Americans make between $50,000 and 100,000 plus a year. And we really think that that internet product or any other products offered by the providers is really valuable because you can’t just jump on a train like we’re in New Orleans here and go to Jazz Fest and hear 50 of the greatest bands of all times. It’s not easy to get to these places. So they’re going to recreate or do things inside their own homes. And one other thing. I want to hit this real quick, and I know we got a timeline here, but one of the things that we found that really concerns us more than anything is the people in the 55 year old and plus category.

Andy Johns: Okay.

Scott Meyer: 80% of them spend time on the internet doing their online banking and their financials. And we’re really concerned about their vulnerability to cybercrime.

Andy Johns: They are concerned, or you are concerned?

Scott Meyer: We’re concerned.

Andy Johns: Okay.

Scott Meyer: And our service providers, if they’re not concerned, they should be very concerned because I talked to a few people at the conference today, and they’ve some of them admitted their customers have been getting ripped off. And the average net worth, according to a federal study last year of rural Americans over the age of 55, is like $1.6 million. And the cyber criminals know that. And a lot of them are doing that financial stuff online. So that was probably one of the things that stood out this year too as well. And it’s really concerning that we need to educate the rural consumers, especially the older ones. Our company, we have to take mandatory cybersecurity training every single month. And I really think that it’s a repetitious thing because the scams really haven’t changed much.

Andy Johns: Right. That’s true.

Scott Meyer: But you need to have a repetition so that the people say, “Oh yeah. That’s a smishing, scam. That’s a phishing scam. That’s, you know, blah, blah, blah.”

Andy Johns: Right.

Scott Meyer: You know, but if they keep hearing it, then they’re going to be more attuned to it. And when they get that email, they’re not going to just click on it.

Andy Johns: Right. Hopefully not.

Scott Meyer: Hopefully not.

Andy Johns: Yeah, I think that’s a really good point. And that’s a great opportunity for folks to to educate their folks through their marketing channel, through their communication channels. Yeah, that’s an excellent point. I’m glad you brought that up.

Scott Meyer: You bet.

Andy Johns: Scott, thanks so much for joining me again on one of these episodes, and going through. I mean, that study that you guys do is one of the best sources in the whole industry of rural subscribers. You know, like you said, there’s other data, different places. But to really drill down into the exact audience that folks that listen to this podcast are interested in. Few sources are better than your study, so thanks for doing it.

Scott Meyer: Well, thank you. Appreciate it.

Andy Johns: He is Scott Meyer. He is the director of marketing for video and voice at Innovative Systems. I’m your host Andy Johns with Pioneer. And until we talk again, keep telling your story.

Outro: StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a communications cooperative that is built to share your story.