Cable operators have been warned that programmers may look elsewhere if they are unable to reach agreements on their carriage.
Speaking at the CTAM EuroSummit in Berlin, Chellomedia COO Niall Curran said there were inevitable stresses and strains between operators and content providers because their interests are not necessarily aligned. “If you look at the broader set of relationships the impact of the credit crunch means cablenets are sensibly starting to look at cost margins and there’s almost a reflex to push back on both technology and content suppliers,” Curran told his audience in Berlin.
Curran said a lot of content providers are starting to look study carriage on free DTT networks and even over the top distribution. “You can’t act as if the content guys have got no alternative. The bigger and stronger the player, then the more likely they are to think about over the top technologies and that has major implications.
Duco Sickinghe, CEO, Telenet, said broadcasters were in danger of overplaying their hand. “There are two types of content providers, the true originators and the packagers. They try to push us against the wall and squeeze us, but our reaction is to go out and find better content that will differentiate us.”
Sickinghe said he continued to argue with international brands such as discovery channel. Operators such as his own were not able to justify the fees asked for their channel suites when there was a lack of localised content. He pointed to partnerships with the BBC and History Channel that had given a local flavour to international transmissions.
The panel agreed that cable was able to withstand the current economic environment; Telenet’s Sickinghe pointing out the Belgian operator had no debt due to mature until 2012. However, he acknowledged the gravity of the situation, referring to a recent us financial conference where a delegate received a phone call, made his excuses and left the room, never to return.
Unitymedia CEO Parm Sandhu agreed, saying that Germany was less dependent on credit than the Anglo Saxon market and less dependent on the housing market. Sandhu said that the German market would cope relatively well with tighter conditions of credit.
The CTAM Europe conference returned to familiar themes such as customer care and, unsurprisingly, triple play. However, a relative newcomer, Annika Sten-Parson, head of sales, products and marketing, Com Hem warned cable might be about to lose its feeling for TV. “We’ve been focussing on the triple play and we’ve been successful, but the reverse of that is that the TV is not as strong as it used to be. I’m not saying we won’t keep on working with the other 2 but the TV experience in years to come will be very important.”
Maik Emmermann, SVP marketing, Unitymedia said that cable should focus more on the brand itself rather than trying to put forward a complex product portfolio to the consumer. “Look at the Audi brand, 20 years ago it wasn’t so good, but now it’s perceived as a technology leader. As cable operators we’re not really focused enough to build the brand and we should be proud enough to move away from this product focus. It’s true we can offer speeds of 20, 30, 50 Mbps, but it probably doesn’t differentiate us enough for the consumer.”
Arguably, such numbers are meaningless to many consumers as a headline figure and it is only the accompanying explanations of what the various speeds can handle that are of benefit to the consumer.
Bruce Dunlop, CEO, BDA Design, recalled when he was creative director of sky: “NTL and Telewest were having trouble getting excited about anything, struggling with being utilities”. He said that although virgin media’s Samuel l Jackson promo displayed “a million messages”, there was at least some excitement. “We’re all in the entertainment business and true entertainment people get excited about what’s on their platform.”
