Be Like Spotify, Ex-TiVo CEO Rogers Advises Cable Operators on User Interfaces

Cable UIs can have "all content out there, the way Spotify does in the music world," Rogers said in Q&A. "That UI layer can really serve as that universal platform where people are going to make choices of what to watch” as “an all-encompassing platform,” he said. "Otherwise, it really doesn’t serve its purpose.” There's "a role out there for someone to put it all together for the consumer, to make it easy,” and at “broadband speed,” with a part for ACA members, Rogers said. NCTA declined to comment.

Rogers also sees a role for major tech platforms. He said FAANG -- as some call Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (see 1803200025) -- could potentially lower the monthly cost to consumers for the cable bundle of channels sold as a package by cutting out some sports costs. Many such tech companies can afford to bid for pricey sports programming, he said. If they succeed, “a lot of that product will get bid away" and "that may take the cost out of the bundle, ultimately leading to less pressure” on pricing as less sports will be included in the traditional packages, Rogers hypothesized.

Cable can increasingly think of itself as a platform, the way some tech companies do, with the benefit that cable already reaches households via direct billing and other relationships, said panelists like National Cable Television Cooperative CEO Rich Fickle and Baker Media CEO Bridget Baker. “The cable industry could be that platform," said Baker, who worked at NBCUniversal and co-founded CNBC. "Cable operators are also in the home, they’re in the community, they’re with the customer" where the likes of Amazon are headed, she said. “There is more of an alliance.”

Operators are moving from a set-top box model of delivering content to an app-based world, said Fickle: “It puts you in an ecosystem where you can access a lot of the new services” and in an easier manner. Cable-TV providers "haven’t done a very good job of aggregating data like guys like Google," which is "an intriguing area, it’s going to be one fraught with controversy, but don’t give it up," the buying co-op chief said. He also counseled operators to consider working with other industries on things like broadband rollout. “Guys like Microsoft, Google and others might turn out to be interesting partners in this infrastructure," he said: "We have to be willing to explore that" as “we’ve gotta find ways for innovation and new partnerships."

Rogers' "characterization of Comcast is incorrect," a company spokeswoman responded. "We began building/developing X1 more than a decade ago, and our UI/platform currently supports many content partnerships with networks, studios, streaming services and more than 60 digital/web partners." She cited the operator's integration and work with BuzzFeed, Disney's ABC for the Oscars, GoPro, Netflix, YouTube and others. To say Comcast hasn't "embraced it or the experience is not quite there is just not true," the representative said.

Comcast is on the path to "providing as comprehensive a user interface experience for video, relative to say what Spotify provides to the user for music," Rogers told us via a spokesman when told about the cable company's reaction. "But cable has a long way to go to really provide the ultimate UI to make accessing any TV or video you want to get to really easy to navigate through on a personalized basis."

Having an excellent UI isn't easy, and may be near impossible for smaller cable providers, another panelist said. "If you’re a big enough operator, you can really spend the money to have a good customer interface," said General Communication CEO Ron Duncan, whose company was bought by one of John Malone's companies (see 1803010051). "But for the small guys, I don’t know how you do it.”

Video is increasingly a low-margin business, and many cable operators are focusing on broadband, executives told ACA: Their industry has an advantage over other sectors in delivering connectivity and having technicians available to visit homes to help all but the most tech-savvy customers fix technical problems. "We can see the video business becoming more and more challenging with the cost structure," said Mediacom Executive Vice President-Operations John Pascarelli. For broadband, “if that’s what we’re going to be, we’ve gotta be the best” in the company's markets, he said. “Our strength is having local people that can get into a home and make that stuff works.”

Cable's key selling points, Duncan said: "The little white trucks” that visit households, and broadband connectivity. "Our life has really been jumping from one dying product to another one,” though he sees broadband as remaining fruitful. "Video margins are going the way of long-distance margins” but cable is a good place to get high-speed access, Duncan said: Broadband is something “most people can’t get enough of." He expects “there will be more disruption,” with faster speeds and products using more bandwidth.

Also at ACA Wednesday, a top Comcast executive discussed possible net neutrality compromises: 1803210006. And FCC members discussed net neutrality and other subjects: 1803210053.