NEW ORLEANS – Traditional cable television services won’t be swept away by an Internet storm anytime soon. Rather, Internet-connected TV services can be supplemental to, and not a replacement for, cable TV.
That was the consensus of a panel discussion Tuesday at the CTAM Summit in New Orleans called ‘IP video and the realm of possibility’. After a look at rumoured cable killers such as Apple TV, Roku, Google TV and Boxee, panelists agreed that the new gadgets could actually serve to enhance their traditional linear offering.
“Linear content in the package that cable operators bring to subscribers today is still very compelling”, said Todd Walker, SVP of video product development for Comcast. “With linear TV, there’s still a huge importance to the immediacy of ‘the water cooler’ – people want to see that content tonight. We believe that linear is going to be there for a long time. The challenge is, what happens if someone missed the first two episodes of a new season, and how do you bring that content to the consumer so that they don’t go somewhere else for it?”
Debbie Fitzgerald, senior architect for CableLabs, was optimistic that cable customers will be loyal to their existing cable provider if they feel that their needs are being met.
“There are opportunities for creativity and initiative to actually try to make linear more exciting”, she said. “I’ve seen that with some interactive programming ideas as well as social networking that encourages viewers to engage during the live broadcast, during the linear programming. Maybe there is a shift to move away from linear programming, but there’s also an opportunity to innovate in this space and to get people back inside of that linear and live programming.”
VP of Rogers Ventures, Mike Lee, agreed with Fitzgerald, and shared a little about what the Canadian MSO is doing to keep their customers from ‘cutting the cord’.
“The diversity of devices that are out, and that continue to be brought out, is going to be overwhelming”, he acknowledged. “From our perspective, whether it’s the next handset or tablet, we have to make sure that it’s the next relevant device for our customers. We’re going to want to make sure that if we have a video customer, that they have the right experience that’s an extension of our linear packaging.”
David Purdy, Rogers’ VP and GM television products, took in the session and told Cartt.ca that his company is “bullish” on the prospects of IP, and the potential that it holds for Rogers’ efforts to expand in to the mobile space.
“For us, (broadband portal) Rogers On Demand Online is the start of taking our video experience and making it available on-line, and frankly, on mobile as well”, he said. “IP lets us make more and more content available, as well as more channels, like, for example, what we did with CBC and their coverage of the World Cup. We’re committed to that. The IP or on-line play allows for us to take it off the traditional digital set top box and TV onto a more mobile experience that you can take with you anywhere.”
And it’s that ubiquitous potential that IP allows that is most compelling to Comcast as well, said Walker.
“Whether it’s control or whether it’s consumption, we want to be everywhere our customer is”, he continued. “If they want to control their TV experience from an iPad, an iPhone, a bandwidth device or a laptop, we want to be there. We don’t want them to be able to go to an experience and see Netflix or GoogleTV, for example, and not have the opportunity to have the Comcast experience there.”
Walker shared a few details about his company’s plans to release a navigation guide for the iPad platform that could be used to control the TV, set a DVR, or to watch video on demand, an app that he called a “fundamental game changer”.
CableLabs’ Fitzgerald revealed that her organization has also recently completed a proof of concept prototype for an iPad remote, after receiving inquiries from numerous US cable operators about technology designed to enhance the consumer experience.
While short on specifics at this point, Fitzgerald said that the concept will harness cloud computing to allow cable companies to roll out new services and update them quickly, all over existing infrastructure and legacy set top boxes.
Purdy said that Rogers also sees a great deal of potential for the relationship between cloud computing and cable.
“From an entertainment guy’s perspective, the notion of content being stored in a cloud, and being able to access that on multiple devices, is highly attractive”, he continued. “We’re used to having our content, on our servers, running on our network. We have to recognize that our customers could be in Calgary or Vancouver, but may still want to access their favourite shows, so having the entertainment stored in the cloud and accessed remotely from multiple devices – be it smart phones, tablets, or PCs – that’s an attractive notion to us and holds a lot of potential for future applications.”
