Advanced Television

Liberty Global: focus on speed and iDTV

May 6, 2010

From Colin Mann in Cologne

Manuel Kohnstamm, Managing Director, Public Policy and Communications at Liberty Global has revealed that the global cable operator's strategy moving forward is to concentrate on accelerating broadband cable's speed advantage over telco DSL and developing interactive digital television (iDTV) services.

Recognising that the cable industry's success in rolling out high-speed broadband networks had forced the competition to accelerate investment in network upgrades, Kohnstamm told delegates attending the ANGA Cable Broadband Summit that although cable was a large player, it was competing with other, larger players across Europe and in Germany.

“With limitations on size and geographic reach, we are focusing on our unique selling propositions,” he said. Central to this was speed. “Cable starts where DSL ends,” he asserted. “We had to play catch-up. Now it's our way of grabbing market share back. We are now benefiting from structural investments and cable is leapfrogging DSL”

“iDTV is essential to compete,” he added. “We will deploy advanced sets of services that will increasingly integrate with high-speed broadband. We want people to fall back in love with the TV. We'll be extending co-operation with content providers and using our broadband superiority to lead in TV innovation. Accelerating speed and developing iDTV are the two cornerstones of our strategy.”

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