“We have Netflix to thank,” said Liberty Global’s Mike Fries during Round One of the traditional ‘elephants round’ at this year’s ANGA COM.
“Our opinion about Netflix has changed, and OTT generally, has changed. A couple of years ago I would have said it’s a love/hate relationship, we love the consumption, we were scared of the implication it might bring about in video.”
“Today its love/love, because we learned from Netflix, from Amazon, from Maxdome, because we realised it’s not really the content, it’s the app, its the experience.
“As soon as we realised that, we created the app, Horizon Go, where you can watch any channel, any time. You can go back in the EPG seven days and watch any programme. We provide that basically for free. So why pay Netflix eight euros for a limited amount of content, while we have all the series and programmes for free with your cable subscription in a beautiful, elegant way.”
Vodafone’s Manuel Cubero told the audience that 60 to 70% of all broadband traffic is streaming video, and broadband usage is growing between 10 and 20% a year.
“Regulatory frameworks have not done anything, not one single thing, to make the internet great. It all comes from entrepreneurs and companies that put the consumer first”, said Fries in response to a call from the public broadcasters for regulation in a converging media environment.
