March 22, 2018
- Pay TV - A Broken Model or an Opportunity?
- This week, our President and General Manager, Jae Park, was
invited to sit on a panel titled “How to Fix the Broken Pay TV Model” at Light
Reading’s Cable Next-Gen Technologies and Strategies event in Denver. The topic
of discussion was the industry trend of cord cutting and what cable operators
can do to stop the subscriber erosion. But is it really as bad as it sounds? As
panelist Peter Brown, Director of Product Engineering for Cable ONE noted “even
though Pay TV subscriptions are down, viewing is up!” To capitalize on the rise
of content viewing, Mitchell Weinraub, Director of Product Development for
AirTV, stated that “Choice, Customization and Change” is where the industry
needs to focus its efforts. Therein, lies the opportunity! The key takeaway from
the discussion was that choice, value and service all have to be made available
to the consumer by the operators. Viewers, and especially millennials, want the
flexibility to be able to easily find what they want to watch, when they want
to watch. Many are frustrated that they can’t find what they want and the
system isn’t personalized to their liking.
To further drive this point home, an article
was published this week which highlighted a survey of Pay TV customers. Results
show operators falling short of expectations when it comes to providing a
positive interaction with their MSOs. Consumers want a more personalized
customer experience when it comes to their relationships with cable operators.
Park hit the nail on the head when asked what he thought the industry could do
to retain their subscribers. He said “Pay TV was created to be a facilitator of
aggregated TV. We now have to look at new ways to minimize frustrations while
making the viewing and overall experience enjoyable for the customer.” The
panel, and the results of the survey, seem to agree. Perhaps that is why Alticast
champions the tagline, “Personalized, Simplified Living”…
Left to right: Ian Olgierson, SNL Kagan; Jae Park, Alticast; Brent Smith, Evolution Digital; David McNaughton, Mediacom; Peter Brown, Digital One; Mitchell Weinraub, AirTV, LLC. Moderator: Craig Leddy
Posted by Jill OToole at 3:38 AM