Video operators are seeing dynamic change in the pay-TV marketplace as consumers embrace skinny bundles, OTT, and other emerging video products. That was one conclusion from Telecompetitor’s recent broadbandTV event.
Madeleine Forrer, Vice President of Video Services for NRTC and Stewart Myers, VP of Programming for NCTC led a discussion on skinny bundles which quickly morphed into a lively debate about the future of pay-TV, and the role programmers play in that future. Consumers are beginning to test the system, with one operator commenting that 27% of his subscriber base now opts for a standard basic channel line-up – his version of a skinny bundle.
“Operators and technical folks being passionate about the industry….it continues to thrive, the cable industry and video,” commented Myers regarding the lively debate surrounding current programming rules. “But things do need to change and folks are trying to figure out how that change should occur.”
“There’s a lot of dynamic tension in the marketplace right now and some folks are eager for there to be change,” commented Forrer. “But it’s just not going to happen as fast as some people would like.”
Image courtesy of flickr user D.Reichardt.
It is time that the FCC and Congress broke the stranglehold that content providers (including off air stations) have on the pay TV market. They are slowly "killing the goose that laid the golden the egg", all in the name of more profits. I believe that "skinny bundles" are just the beginning of the inevitable dismantling of this broken system.