Cable Tech Types See IPTV, Web Portal Threats

Cable Tech Types See IPTV, Web Portal Threats

Alan Breznick, Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

January 13, 2006

1 Min Read
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Cable technologists have started recognizing that they have a growing number of emerging broadband and video rivals to worry about these days. At the SCTE's Emerging Technologies conference in Tampa this week, cable engineers publicly expressed concern about telco IPTV, online video portals, portable media players and peer-to-peer services, to name just a few. Instead of focusing on DirecTV and EchoStar, they fretted that new competitors ranging from Verizon and AT&T to Apple and Google could leave them choking in the dust. In particular, cable technology strategists seem worried about the threat posed by such new, "over-the-top" video players as Google, Yahoo! and AOL. At the CES in Las Vegas last week, for instance, Google announced plans to jump into the pay video market with on-demand TV programming from CBS, the NBA and other content suppliers. What galls some cable types is that broadband subscribers would use cable's own fat pipes to tap into this competitive video content. "The competition isn't the telcos," argued Tony Werner, senior vice president and CTO of Liberty Global. "It's Google and Google-lite."

About the Author

Alan Breznick

Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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