Eric Tveter, the recently-appointed CEO, says he’s extremely positive about the future of cable in the region.
He told the third and final day of Cable Congress on Warsaw that he was both very bullish and excited about the industry.
“So many times it was predicted our industry would be disrupted into oblivion, yet we are here and strong. We had to reinvent ourselves every time. We provide great, ever evolving services. Most importantly, we have the strongest network. Adapt or die is the mantra and we’ve done that. TV everywhere is a reality now and our industry is very poised to achieve that,” he said.
Severina Pascu, CEO CEE at Liberty Global, was equally optimistic. “Our Horizon platform and high speed capacity are a strong building block allowing us to grow our core business. B2B and mobile are also great opportunities.” Pascu believes the company’s success depends on its ability to understand consumers as well as the industry environment. “At Liberty Global we are true believers in bundle” said Pascu. “Our customers want to be connected everywhere and access all content on any device. That’s why I see mobile as an enabler for mobility.” The company sees fixed-mobile convergence as a clear trend, and will follow increasing demand for similar solutions. But Pascu said she doesn’t think Liberty will acquire a mobile network operator (MNO).
Frans-Willem de Kloet, the new CEO of UPC Poland, noted the company is the biggest cable operator in the country while only having a 20% cable footprint – probably the lowest in the Liberty family. De Kloet sees this as a challenge, but also an opportunity, saying “there are 500 cable operators in Poland and we think this situation is not sustainable. We need more scale to bring innovation to customers. The game here is scale, and that’s the ambition for Poland.”