Cable 2009: Roberts: Online Video is "Friend, Not Foe"
Cable Heavyweights Weigh in on Industry Issues
Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 4/1/2009 5:00:47 PM
Washington — Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said that cable programming online could be a boon for distributors who are smart enough to figure out how to monetize it.
"I think it's a friend, not a foe," Roberts said of online cable programming at the opening general session of Cable Show '09 here Wednesday. "It is powering our broadband business, one of the fastest growing parts of Comcast. For programmers, it's a new opportunity to try to monetize in this horrific advertising environment."
Online video has been a bone of contention with several operators - especially Time Warner Cable - who have voiced concern about the growing amount of programming that is available online for free.
The phenomenon, called "cord cutting" has been seen as a major threat to the cable industry.
Other content providers have proposed a compromise - charging a fee for online content or making it a part of a regular cable subscription. That latter premise seemed to be appealing to another Cable Show panelist, Suddenlink Communications CEO Jerry Kent.
Kent said that online video, especially bandwidth intensive high-definition video, could be good for operators who sell high-speed Internet connections.
Kent noted that while the music industry was failed because it ignored the Internet and the newspaper industry has wavered because they embraced the Internet too much - basically by giving away their content - cable operators and programmers need to find a middle ground.
"We need to find something in between, maybe something where a paying customer can get video anytime, anywhere on any device," Kent said. But Kent added that also creates some collateral issues, like what about second homes, hotel rooms, dormitories and other areas where a cable customer may have access to the Internet and therefore, access to programming.
Roberts said there were still several issues to work out, but that the industry cannot simply ignore the fact that some people, especially younger people, are increasingly watching programming online.
"I don't think we should put our heads in the sand," Roberts said.
Roberts said that already the cable industry has developed some solutions - more and more programming is finding its way on demand, for instance - and others will develop over time.
"This is a great opportunity for us to find an additional revenue stream," Roberts said, adding that the trick will be to provide a service "in a way that adds value, not destroys value."
While online may present a future opportunity, one that has repeatedly eluded the cable industry - wireless - is being addressed once again, this time through the Clearwire partnership partnership between Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Google, Intel and Sprint. But that partnership, which was formed to build a nationwide fourth-generation Wi-Max network, has hit some snags. Back in February, former Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff said the network may take longer to build and cost more than originally expected.
Roberts said that wireless has always been a "conundrum" for the cable industry, but added that this time around, the partners are looking ahead.
Roberts said that many new wireless applications are requiring an increasing amount of bandwidth, capacity that can only be provided by a Wi-Max network.
Clearwire chairman Craig McCaw said that his approach is different than some other past, and failed, cable wireless consortiums.
"What we're trying to do is different, we want jump to where we think the market is going rather than where it is today."
But Kent, who has about 1.2 million subscribers with Suddenlink, compared to 24 million at Comcast, said that he is taking a wait-and-see attitude with wireless. And the way technology is changing, he may just continue to wait. Kent pointed to e-Bay's Internet phone product Skype and Google's moves to create a first generation Internet phone that rivals Apple's iPhone.
"If Google and Skype can crack the code, I don't know why I would need wireless," Kent said.
