chloe
12-03-2009, 10:48 PM
Comcast Corp. is buying control of NBC Universal from GE largely because Comcast wants to own more movies and TV shows. The point is to give it a position of strength if fewer people sign up for its cable TV services and watch more video online.
It's understandable why the strategy might seem dubious: Another media company, Time Warner Inc., just gave up on that and spun off its cable TV division.
Yet while Comcast seems to be taking a different approach — marrying entertainment content with the largest cable TV system in the nation — it and Time Warner have arrived at the same conclusion: The future is in content, and the pipes that carry it matter less.
That's why Time Warner could jettison the business of selling subscription TV service and focus on the Warner Bros. movie studio, cable channels such as CNN and HBO and magazines such as People and Sports Illustrated.
Comcast's hard-wired delivery system serves a quarter of the nation's pay TV households and isn't about to be thrown overboard. But Comcast has decided it must be much more than a cable TV provider. That's why CEO Brian Roberts tried — unsuccessfully — to buy Walt Disney Co. for $54 billion in 2004.
Even after acquiring or developing cable TV channels including E! and Golf Channel and sources of programming such as the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers, cable TV and other services running through Comcast's pipes make up 95 percent of its revenue. That would drop to 65 percent if the NBC Universal deal goes through, giving Comcast control of the Peacock network, cable channels such as USA, Bravo and Syfy and the Universal Pictures studio.
And over time cable TV figures to matter even less, as people watch more video on PCs and cell phones or through video game consoles connected to the Internet.
http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?articleId=64713281&channelId=2951&buyerId=newsmeatcom&buid=3281
It's understandable why the strategy might seem dubious: Another media company, Time Warner Inc., just gave up on that and spun off its cable TV division.
Yet while Comcast seems to be taking a different approach — marrying entertainment content with the largest cable TV system in the nation — it and Time Warner have arrived at the same conclusion: The future is in content, and the pipes that carry it matter less.
That's why Time Warner could jettison the business of selling subscription TV service and focus on the Warner Bros. movie studio, cable channels such as CNN and HBO and magazines such as People and Sports Illustrated.
Comcast's hard-wired delivery system serves a quarter of the nation's pay TV households and isn't about to be thrown overboard. But Comcast has decided it must be much more than a cable TV provider. That's why CEO Brian Roberts tried — unsuccessfully — to buy Walt Disney Co. for $54 billion in 2004.
Even after acquiring or developing cable TV channels including E! and Golf Channel and sources of programming such as the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers, cable TV and other services running through Comcast's pipes make up 95 percent of its revenue. That would drop to 65 percent if the NBC Universal deal goes through, giving Comcast control of the Peacock network, cable channels such as USA, Bravo and Syfy and the Universal Pictures studio.
And over time cable TV figures to matter even less, as people watch more video on PCs and cell phones or through video game consoles connected to the Internet.
http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?articleId=64713281&channelId=2951&buyerId=newsmeatcom&buid=3281