Today, the European Cable Congress started in Amsterdam.
Ms Caroline van Weede, Managing Director of Cable Europe, identified the following policy areas as key for 2014:
– copyright
– audiovisual
– open internet
– single telecoms market
– rollout of Next Generation Access networks (NGAs)
Cable Europe’s President (and member of the Liberty Global management team in Denver), Mr Manuel Kohnstamm added to this list by saying that ‘Privacy’ is a top 3 priority for cable as well as convergence between the cable and mobile industries.
Service developments which were mentioned in particular: recommendations – personalisation – storage – lots of VOD
Liberty Global’s CEO, Mr Mike Fries said that:
– Partnerships with broadcasters like RTL Nederland are extremely important;
– LGI has not been approached by Vodafone;
– LGI is an 80 billion dollar enterprise.
Mr Manuel Cubero, CEO of Kabel Deutschland, called upon regulators to be more cooperative and to assist the cable industry in its consolidation efforts, with a view to developing a strong and innovative industry in Europe.
Ziggo’s new CEO, René Obermann (former Deutsche Telekom) said that although bundling is an easy way to sell quadruple play (TV, voice telephony (fixed and mobile) and internet access), seamless data packages, single authentication and convergence are the future.
Some figures for Europe:
– 31 million subscribers to digital cable
– 25 million subscribers to analogue cable
– 74% of high speed internet in Europe delivered by cable
See also this infographic by Cable Europe (pdf).