On February 18th USA Today published an article written by Michael Wolff called “Cable is Taking the Fast Train to Oblivion.” The article forecasts a future of the cable TV industry that almost directly opposes reality. It completely dismisses how Americans actually consume cable programming and how the cable industry reacts to the changing needs of its customers.
Cable is currently enjoying a period of financial success because, first and foremost, it serves the interests of consumers. Customers wanted faster broadband connections and now enjoy speeds that have increased 900 percent in a decade. Customers wanted higher-quality content and now can watch cable programming that won 10 of the 11 Golden Globe Awards for television this year. Customers wanted to enjoy content whenever and wherever they pleased and today can choose from thousands of shows and movies on demand. They can even watch many of them on their tablets and smart phones. Customers demanded better, faster, and more and that’s exactly what the cable industry gave them.
What we offer is a demonstrably high-functioning business model that is responsible for delivering blistering broadband speeds across an entire nation and creating the highest caliber television content in history And toward Mr. Wolff’s point that everyone has either cut the cord or is flirting with the possibility, according to Leichtman Research Group, multichannel video providers gained subscribers between November 2011 and November 2012. And the reason for that is great content and a flexible viewing experience. And we think it’s great that Mr. Wolff enjoys a “river of video” flowing over his laptop. Of course, that glorious, free flowing content was developed and financed by the very model he derides as broken.
We don’t know what the future holds any better than Mr. Wolff. But we do know that cable does not sit still. It constantly innovates, invests, and delivers. Cable works hard to find out what people want and how people want it and then delivers it to its customers at the lowest cost-per-hour of any available entertainment resource.