OTT services meet a need for customers and from the standpoint of the cable industry it is “working to get it all in one place”, according to Phil McKinney, president and CEO, CableLabs.
However, speaking in a panel discussion entitled Technology trends and new frontiers, Balan Nair, CTO, Liberty Global, contradicted this by saying that almost every cable company is now thinking of introducing a stand alone SVOD product.
In its case, Liberty’s Swiss operator UPC Cablecom launched a service named My Prime last year.
Separately, asked about the future prospects for 4k services, McKinney said that there was currently not enough differentiation with HD for consumers to make the switch.
However, he added that the commercial launch of 8k, which has unique features, remains on track for 2020.
