CABLE NEXT-GEN -- Denver -- Cable operators must accelerate their ability to change and evolve in order to successfully compete and meet new customer demands, said a top Shaw Communications executive during a keynote at last week's Light Reading event.
Comparing the business of cable to an "infinite game," Shaw Communications Senior Vice President of Product Development and Strategic Programs Dennis Stevens described operators' old models as obsolete, describing the old days of voice, pay-TV and expensive broadband options.
"Good old triple-play's been good for this industry for ten years now. If you start digging into why aren't people buying broadband, a lot of it is price. Prices keep going up," Stevens said. "A big reason is their smartphones can do anything they want to do. Millennials don't see the need for it. Pay-TV: That story tells itself, and we're all familiar with it. The customers aren't going away; they're simply going somewhere else. More people use cell phones at home that use landlines so that business has gone away as well."
But that's no reason to count out cable, Stevens told the audience of peers. With billions invested in DOCSIS 3 and 3.1, fiber, distributed access architectures (DAA) and other software-based infrastructure, cable is fighting hard to retain existing customers and win over new ones, he contended.
And the path to success is paved with competitors' lessons, Stevens said.
They include:
"If somebody has a strategy and they're beating you up with it -- adopt that strategy" Stevens asked. "If you're doing it already, you're behind."
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— Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News. Follow us on Twitter @BroadbandWN or @alisoncdiana.
