Cord-cutting: ‘Don’t panic!’
March 2, 2011
By Colin Mann
Shane O’Neill, Chief Strategy Officer at Liberty Global, has suggested that so long as the cable TV industry “continues to innovate, and quickly,” there is no need to panic at the threat posed by ‘cord cutting’, whereby subscribers churn out of their pay-TV subscriptions in favour of online content sources.
He told delegates at the FT Digital Media & Broadcasting Conference that although there were signs of people starting to ‘cut the cord’, but said there was no need to panic.
Simon Calver, CEO of online movie service LOVEFiLM, said that the rate and speed that OTT providers obtained content would drive the pace of cord-cutting. He suggested that in the next 12- to 18 months, many defining services would be launched that would change the way people watch TV. “If you are an incumbent cable or satellite company, that is a risk to your business model,” he warned.