Last January Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt took the opportunity to talk a little trash about Netflix, questioning the company's business model, despite the fact Netflix has been very successful -- and now owns nearly 65% of the digital video distribution market. According to Britt in January, "anybody can hire a bunch of Web designers" to develop Netflix's GUI, but he questioned "what the ultimate root value of that is." Fast forward half a year and Britt is taking a decidedly different tone, telling Marketwatch this week that Netflix is a model to aspire to, and that the cable industry needs to follow Netflix's lead and give consumers a "better experience":
quote:
"The reason why there’s interest in these Internet video providers that is that they’re deploying technology that’s making the experience better for consumers." "There’s nothing about [cable companies] that stops us from doing that. So I would say ... we as an industry just need to pay attention and give consumers what they want. Then there's no room for these other guys. I don't mean to say that in a negative way, but it's true."
Except Britt doesn't appear to be taking his own advice. While Britt talks about improving the customer experience on one hand, recent reports suggest the company is busy
again tinkering with metered billing -- a move that if anything will make the "consumer experience" more cumbersome, complicated and expensive. Britt also recently
paid lip service to lower income consumers and the possibility of lowering prices (where Netflix really differentiates itself), yet his company continues to hike prices several times a year -- and their token tiers aimed at lower income users
continue to be painfully uninspired and loaded with odd restrictions.Meanwhile the cable industry's supposed solution to less-expensive Internet video platforms, dubbed "TV Everywhere," continues to be a DRM'd, walled-garden product only offered to customers already paying for traditional television. While it's certainly true that Time Warner Cable is being progressive on some fronts (like
their iPad app), so much of their behavior focuses on legacy business protection (using caps as a weapon against Internet video, using walled gardens, refusing to compete on price) they've made it pretty clear that "improving the customer experience" is rhetoric that only goes so far.
