Contentinople - Ryan Lawler - Boxee CEO: Consumers Will Get a la Carte Online

Written by Ryan Lawler

Friday, March 20. 2009 at 11:30 AM EDT 1 comment

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NEW YORK -- Media Summit -- Boxee CEO Avner Ronen says the shift of content moving online will allow consumers to pick and choose what they want to watch, which could disrupt the business models of numerous cable programmers.

In a panel discussion with other digital media executives yesterday, Ronen said that content companies and cable and IPTV service providers alike are trying to "use their leverage to better survive or avoid change" that is coming to the media industry.

"No one likes change except Obama," Ronen said.

The stakes are high. thePlatform Inc. VP of marketing Marty Roberts, also speaking on the panel, noted that cable programmers receive $22 billion in cable subscriber fees each year, which has dampened much of their enthusiasm for moving that content online.

"Cable content is the last piece of content to move online, because no one wants to lose that subscriber fee," Roberts said.

According to Roberts, that could change soon. He says his company is working with parent company Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) to extend cable subscriber rights onto the Web. The result would lead to a packaged offering that would allow cable operators and content owners to package content in pay TV and broadband content bundles.

"What's great is that there's a good recognition that people want that content on the Web and you have to be there," Roberts says. "Cable companies have a vested interest in the packaged offering, and content producers do as well. Everyone has a vested interes --"

"Except the consumer," Ronen interjected. "That's always the argument against à la carte programming is that we're funding all this other great content -- but that's a false argument."

Ronen said cable providers are trying to force a cable model online. But in an online video world where everything is on demand, he argues that the existing model won't hold up: "Cable companies have been fighting cable à la carte for years in Washington, but I think consumers will prevail online."

According to Steven Mitgang, CEO of Veoh Networks Inc. , there's also the possibility that companies like Netflix Inc. could buy digital rights from cable programmers to act as broadband video aggregators.

"There's nothing stopping Netflix from paying per-subscriber fees to get access to that content," Mitgang said. "So what you might see are mini cable companies emerging online."

While cable companies and content companies alike have talked up the opportunity for creating an authentication scheme that will allow consumers to pay for bundled cable and broadband video services, some people on the panel questioned how quickly those services would become available.

Referring to Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes's TV Everywhere intiative, which would allow pay TV subscribers access to that content on PCs and mobile devices, Mitgang said, "I don't think that in two years it will be 'TV Everywhere.' I think it will be TV in some places, sometimes, maybe."

Tags: Broadcaster, Business, Copyright, Monetization, Netflix, Partnerships, Technology, thePlatform, Time Warner, TV, Veoh, Video

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Individualized Service
ez-website-monitoring
Rank: Pasha
Friday September 25, 2009 12:41:00 PM

no ratings

My guess is that cable companies will get more and more individualized service, letting consumers even pick channel-by-channel of what they want, rather than including it all. Everybody likes to "customize", it makes them feel good and I think the cable companies will pick up on this trend.

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