Yes, there really were seven people on this morning’s super session. … Moderator William Kennard, former chairman of the FCC, managed a heavy-hitter group of operators and programmers: Glenn Britt, Time Warner Cable; Mark Cuban, HDNet; Pat Esser, Cox Communications; Tom Rutledge; Cablevision; Tony Vinciquerra, Fox Networks Group; Michael Willner, Insight Communications; David Zaslav, NBC Universal. One subject in particular has programmers flummoxed — how to handle Cablevision’s network DVR service. NBCU’s David Zaslav said during the Q&A his company’s lawyers are still looking it over and they’ll get back to Cablevision with an opinion in the next couple of months. “It’s really more of a legal issue; we have to look at what the functionality is.” At issue — is it supercharged VOD or truly a DVR? Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt talked about the ability to use set-top data to target advertising to viewing patterns. That’s one of the qualms I hear from programmers — that operators could use a so-called network DVR as a targeted ad vehicle. Also from the fast-paced (as far as show panels go) session and from the post-session Q&A:
— Mark Cuban repeatedly stressed his commitment to working with last-mile partners rather than strike out on his own when it comes to streaming, Worth listening given that he’s the only one on the panel to make serious money from streaming so far by selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo. CUban: “You’re never going to see us stream HDNet. … I know the economics of streaming in and out. The only people who control the conomics of the stream control the last mile of the pipe.” Cuban clarified that he was talking about streaming on his own; not about streaming via operators. Esser said streaming HD may happen but it all comes down to the quality of service on the last mile.
— Britt: “A la carte isn’t a great way to sell networks and it isn’t a great way to sell programming.”
— The ops took umbrage at the term “net neutrality.” Esser: “Every time I hear this discussion every cable company says it has no intent of blocking anything.” Britt: “I actually the subject has nothing to do with net neutrality. I think it’s a clever way to change the subject.”
— The best Bell smackdown of the morning from Tom Rutledge of Cableivision when asked about competition from Verizon’s FiOS: “They have two-percent penetration after a year — we think that’s their employee count.”
— Also on the Bells, Wilner: “The second largest company in their industry is larger than all of ours comnbined … We’re perfectly capable if the playing field is level and we look forward to the competition.”
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post