December 27, 2025 | Mark Luis Foster

HOAs have great negotiating power that often goes unnoticed. A mini community like an HOA typically gets cheaper “per driveway” services for mowing, snow clearing, garbage, and even insurance (by a smaller margin) on a per-household price than compared to a similar home that is not in an HOA.

There’s one industry that was on the doorstep of extinction that figured out how to leverage HOAs to a mutual advantage for associations and industry alike, and that’s the cable industry.

We all know that streaming services are the new king of TV connections and many households across the fruited plain, like mine, have long since “cut the cord” from cable. That has left traditional cable TV providers like Comcast and Spectrum to stand on the sidelines and watch their subscribers leave in droves. In 2025 alone, Comcast and Spectrum alone lost more than 1 million traditional pay-TV customers in the first three quarters of the year.  It is estimated that total subscriptions have decreased to an estimated 50-66 million households nationwide, where 10 years ago it was estimated that 100 million households were tethered to a cable service.

What’s saving these companies now are, ironically, homeowner associations across the USA. From Cord Cutters News:

These arrangements, established over the past decade, integrate cable TV and often internet services directly into rental agreements or mandatory HOA fees. Property owners and associations negotiate discounted bulk rates with providers, passing the costs onto residents regardless of individual usage. This creates a captive subscriber base that cannot easily opt out, providing a steady revenue stream for cable companies amid widespread cord-cutting.

It makes sense. Internet services are now considered by many to be a utility, something that is just as crucial as water and gas hookups to keep things functioning in a civilized world. If HOAs could negotiate better pricing on water and gas, I’m certain we’d all be on board. With internet, we get a chance to have substantial discounts for a service that the vast majority of residents absolutely need.

The scale of this phenomenon is substantial. The United States has approximately 370,000 HOAs, encompassing roughly 40 million housing units, according to a report from iProperty Management. Even if only a quarter of these communities maintain active bulk cable partnerships—a conservative estimate—this could lock in around 10 million subscribers, representing a significant portion of the remaining traditional pay-TV market.

In our Lakeville HOA, our board was able to lower the internet access fees down to about $30 per month via bulk billing, and that’s down from an estimated $100 per month when households were using the same provider for a direct hookup. We did not negotiate a cable agreement, however, and left that to individual residents to decide (and pay for on their own). But the gamble for these ISPs is that cheaper internet will lead to cross-selling of cable and phone services, and it seems to be working.

Combined, these mandatory deals likely account for 15 million or more subscribers, acting as a critical stabilizer for an industry otherwise eroded by consumer shifts toward on-demand streaming.

You can read more about the effects in this new article, HERE.  Also, I conducted an interview recently with Joe Berg of Data Stream, one of our terrific sponsors who is right in the middle of internet provision to HOAs and multi-family properties. If your HOA is considering a bulk billing agreement for internet, I highly recommend watching, below.