WITHOUT REVEALING NUMBERS, DOLAN CALLS VoD ROLLOUT SUCCESS
Cablevision rolled out its Interactive Optimum (iO) little more than month ago, but Chmn. Charles Dolan already views it as successful. Without revealing numbers, he said N.Y. area subscribers signed up in droves, despite initial glitches with system. VoD is “going to change this industry,” he said. Speaking at CTAM Broadband Opportunity Conference in Tyson’s Corner, Va., Dolan told how Cablevision executives introduced iO in letter to customers warning that they could experience problems at outset because company was new to digital. “If you are willing to be tolerant of the problems that we are going to have at the outset, then return the enclosed card and we'll give you a priority installation,” Dolan quoted letter as saying. “We've never had a higher return to a direct mail piece.”
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In addition to increased channel capacity of VoD, Dolan touted iO’s “mag rack” service, which offers magazine style content on TV on specific subjects such as bird-watching, science, great wines, art. Service allows subscriber to pause, rewind and otherwise control how magazine is viewed using remote control. When service began Sept. 28, Cablevision offered 10 mag rack topics, introduced 6 more Nov. 1 and expects to have at least 20 by end of year. By end of 2002, goal is to have more than 50, Dolan said. “That will be an experience that they never had with television before,” he said. Cablevision system offers “infinite depth” he said because company is using network server to interact with subscribers. Another opportunity for Cablevision is notion that it can produce magazines, not merely carry them. “We're paying a lot of attention to credibility” of information in magazines, he said. However, company also is “scouring the film world” searching for content that will fit magazine niches, Dolan said.
Subscribers pay $19.95 per month for overall VoD service, which is part of Cablevision’s digital service. Service also offers e-mail component, operating from wireless keyboard that fits beneath coffee table in front of TV. Subscribers can send e-mail while TV program continues to play, allowing them to interact with people associated with programming, Dolan said. “After you have it for a while, you won’t want to be without it,” he said.
Dolan also defended company’s slow entry into digital market, saying it had upgraded its systems and executives were concentrating on “upscale analog.” He said they also worried that they would “antagonize” their customers and sought, above all, to find VoD opportunity that wouldn’t be too complex. Asked about timing of introducing new service when national economy was flagging, Dolan said in-home entertainment was way to economize on outside activities. He also said down line, digital would allow Cablevision to bundle services, including IP telephony.
Asked whether he would rather compete with News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch or EchoStar’s Charles Ergen, Dolan called both formidable opponents. He complimented Murdoch on his ability to build branded programming, but said cable companies had opportunity to more adeptly personalize content with each consumer. As for Ergen, who is known for offering cut-rate prices to lure customers, Dolan said: “If you think of yourself only as a facility company and the way to beat the competition is to continually lower your price… I don’t think there’s a real future in that.”
In later session, Incanta CEO Maggie Bellville urged MSOs to seize chance to offer streaming media to PCs, saying cable was best positioned to provide broadband to PC services.