Cable Bandwidth Reclamation to Speed Up
NEW ORLEANS -- Cable operators’ efforts to free for digital programming, video on demand, high definition networks and other products the bandwidth used by analog channels will speed up the next few years, executives said Sunday at the NCTA convention’s opening. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts sees the industry spending about $5 billion to “reclaim” about 250 MHz of bandwidth, he said in a keynote. That compares with $100 billion for systems nationwide to expand to 750 MHz from 500 MHz total capacity, he said.
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“It is a critical thing,” Roberts said of the reclamation. “It’s going to be a very exciting, tumultuous period.” Comcast in 2008 will take back capacity used by about 40 analog channels, half its total, for the “vast majority” of customers in about 20 percent of systems, he told reporters. It likely will make the switch in “a large portion” of remaining systems in 2009 and finish in 2010. How successful the early efforts are will determine the pace over the next several years, he said. The company wants to get the 20 percent of customers who don’t buy digital to take it. Seventy percent of Comcast cable customers buy it, and 10 percent may keep analog for “lifeline” service, because they also buy satellite-TV or for other reasons, he said.
Taking back the spectrum will let Comcast sell faster broadband using DOCSIS 3.0, Roberts said. Next year is a “unique, one-time moment” to gain digital customers because full-power stations will cut off analog, he said. Operators are “experimenting in different ways,” including reclamation and using switched digital systems to more efficiently use capacity, NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow told reporters.
Roberts and others said their companies aren’t being hurt by the slowing economy or by audience fragmentation. News Corp.’s U.S. business has done “surprisingly well,” except for some of its TV stations, said President Peter Chernin. Targeted advertising and other technologies are “big opportunities for all of us, and we've got to figure out how to live with them,” he added. “We're all in some ways guilty of over-commercializing our shows.” The media business is “recession resistant” but not immune, said Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman. Time-shifted viewing means “the repeats of shows just aren’t playing as well as they used to,” he said.
Intel hasn’t seen U.S. Internet use affected by the slowdown, CEO Paul Otellini said. The company hopes Americans will use their economic stimulus checks to buy PCs and other high-tech goods, he said.