Cable Congress 2010 – Brussels: It is the ongoing dilemma for the cable operator, how to deal with content of dubious legality that is flowing over your broadband network, and competing with your own content offer.
In a CTO discussion at Cable Congress, there was an acknowledgement that it is not going away, and should be embraced. “Two years ago the big discussion was peer to peer, but we don’t see any growth there, moving instead to hosted video,” said Tony Werner, CTO Comcast Cable.
Fellow panelist Lorenz Glatz CTO, Kabel Deutschland said it was possible to manage the networks in favour of their customers. “It is not quite clear yet what opportunities we will have with operators to manage our traffic. The ability to manage our traffic smartly is something that could work in Europe, to make sure that the services the customers pay you for are delivered”.
Glatz added that the cablenet’s four-tuner PVR due for rollout this year would have the capability to take a limited amount of over-the-top content to have a living room feel about it.
Werner made clear that the growing number of connected TVs did not have the monopoly on applications and widgets and agreed with Glatz that the living room was for the cable sector to lose.