

NEWS:
ITA Update: The largest cable operator you never heard of...
It’s
very clear… that the future of TV is on the Internet. But with
all the talk of “cord cutting”, the cable and satellite companies still
rule, representing over 90M homes. Comcast and DirecTV alone represent
almost half of that (42M). And they’re the ones who most influence the
economics of home media. As much as you hear “Content is King”… if
you don’t have distribution, you have nothing.
So, it was with great curiosity that I stepped into the annual NTCA
Conference in Dallas. This is the “NTCA” (National
Telecommunications Cooperative Association), not the much larger
“NCTA” (National Cable and Telecommunications Association). The NTCA
(along w/ the NRTC and the NCTC) represent over 1,400 small rural
operators… each with between 500 and 20,000 subscribers. As an
aggregate, they would be considered the second largest cable company,
with almost 18M customers.
The conference was fascinating…because of how little most of us know
about this world. And how much potential business we’re all missing.
From the ITV side of things, the opportunities are most intriguing.
A cable operator with 5,000 subs is much more flexible than one with
10M. And it’s much easier to test new technology on the much
smaller group. It’s like having a nationwide platform to test new
applications and services.
With that said, there is a lot of transformation going on in the
business… both bad and good. Turns out, their traditional business of
providing land-line telephone service is dying on the vine. They are
losing customers (to cell phone/VOIP) and the government subsidies that
keep them in business. So, they badly need new services to sell,
to replace the lost revenue.
So, here comes the cavalry. Just like government programs subsidizing
rural electricity since the 1930’s and rural phone service since the
1950’s… we now have a government program to bring broadband Internet to
all corners of rural America. As they provide Internet services…
they can now carry digital TV and VOIP services, as well. They have
the need, the opportunity and the subsidized funds to pay for it. We
just need to figure out ways to help out.
See you soon.
Ben Mendelson
President ITV Alliance (ben@itvalliance.org)
Allison Dollar,
CEO ITV Alliance (allison@itvalliance.org)