Cablevision’s Rutledge Eyes Order Fulfillment
COO Sees Opportunities from Commercial Telephony
By Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 3/7/2007 12:41:00 PM
Cablevision Systems chief operating officer Tom Rutledge again pointed to the growing potential of commercial phone services in the Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable operator’s metropolitan New York footprint, but he added that the order-fulfillment opportunity may be even bigger.
Rutledge told an audience of investors and investment bankers at the Bear Stearns Media Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., Wednesday that Cablevision estimates that commercial telecommunications is about a $3 billion business annually. But he added that what is often misunderstood is that the fulfillment opportunity within that customer base could be even larger.
Cablevision already sells products like television sets and electronic equipment through its Optimum Online Store and allows customers to purchase Cablevision services like high-speed Internet, digital-video recorders and video-on-demand by clicking on their remote controls.
Rutledge said at the conference that Cablevision sold 600,000 orders of its services via those methods last year. And it could be expanded to include products from small and midsized businesses that subscribe to the MSO’s phone service.
“That back-office system, an e-wallet on the television allows you to ship directly out of warehouses any kind of product,” he added. “Businesses that have a telecom relationship with us and an integrated strategy to sell products to our customers can take out costs from their business because we can take orders for them directly from the television.”
Rutledge continued, “That opportunity grows out of our subscriber relationships -- it grows out of our relationships with the residential customers and the business customers. I think our opportunity to monetize than in the long run is an even bigger revenue opportunity than business telecom itself.”
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