Cable Congress 2010 – Brussels. UPC has issued a “call to arms” to the cable industry and for cablecos to find ways to cooperate with each other.
Speaking in a session entitled Competition: is OTT the real threat: an operator’s view, Miguel Bielich, VP strategy and commerce, UPC Broadband, said that there is no reason for the cable industry to panic over the growth of OTT.
Citing developments in Europe, where broadcasters are providing services such as iPlayer and RTL Now and “pan-European hopefuls” such as Amazon video, hulu, YouTube and allocine.com are waiting in the wings, he added that the “main competition today is still based on basics (and price).”
The cable industry’s big problem is that it is still very fragmented, with no operators having 100% national coverage. In his view, cablecos should take a leaf out of the mobile market, which is working together by, for instance, creating one single platform to go head to head with Apple iPhone app store.
Cablecos, he feels, should find ways to cooperate with each other through “either more commonality in middleware or platform or content or any other way we think is smart for us.”
Saskia Schatteman, EVP residential marketing, Telenet, meanwhile said that the Belgian operator also does not see OTT as a threat. In fact, she added, “we want to be part of it.”
