Cable Execs Admit TV Isn’t Everywhere Yet
The promise of “TV Everywhere” has been a key strategy in the cable and satellite TV industry’s fight to retain customers in the face of challenges from online video providers such as Netflix. Yet many rights deals still haven’t been worked out. More important, audience measurement firms have been slow to count viewing on mobile devices, so advertisers have been reluctant to pay as much for commercials on phones and tablets compared with television sets.
Cable Convenes Under Cloud Of Uncertainty
Michael Powell leads the NCTA as it holds its annual convention, but he will be hard pressed to present a unified front.
Rising Costs Could Spur Cable Consolidation
Wall Street analysts says higher carriage and retrans fees, plus declining video customers, could lead to MSO mergers.
Dazzling Content Can Trump Disruptors
At the cable industry’s annual convention’s opening session, Showtime’s Matt Blank made it simple: “I want to be the most desired alternative when somebody turns on their television or fires up that iPad or fires up that smartphone.” And NCTA CEO Michael Powell emphasized that the group would continue to fight for an open Internet
Challenges Top Of Mind As Cable Gathers
The cable industry’s annual gathering is usually a celebration of new technologies, popular programming and sunny projections for growth. But when top pay-TV executives gather in Washington for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association convention this week the conversation may be a bit more somber as there are some big clouds on the horizon that will put a damper on what typically has been a three-day party.