THE CABLE PIPELINE

 With the recession causing consumers, to search for ways to save money, yet have their fix on entertainment and news; media industries are seeing a migration which may be happening faster than they either wanted, or can keep up with, in current business models.

I’m referring to the consumer who is integrating their internet connection with their TV’s to watch and consume copious amounts of content. While this is not surprising, since we knew this was happening to some degree; a study by Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals it is probably moving faster than Pipeline Executives would like to see.

As evidenced with the “TV Everywhere” initiative by Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the industry is moving faster to lure customers to their content offerings on the Web.  As with any business, “if you snooze, you loose”; this maybe what executives are thinking about at 2:00am in the morning while also trying to get some snooze. Again, I applaud both Comcast and Time Warner for their rush to create a business, marrying the Internet with TV’s, as it was probably just in the “nick of time” in taking some advantage of this revolution.

How will this new business model play out in the future since content has been offered “free” for the most part online, with the likes of Hulu? Ad revenue has not come anywhere near the amount needed to off-set the revenues being lost from consumers migrating away from traditional TV to the hybrid internet/TV connection. Can the industry comeback later and begin charging extra for content viewing? Operators should be contemplating that next move into agreements with content providers, ad supported vendors, and consumer pricing which will ultimately decide the success of this new model. Stay tuned for the outcome of Internet/TV Viewing!