Comcast CEO Brian Roberts gave a post NBC-merger interview with the
Wall Street Journal this week in which the CEO again blows off the threat posed by Internet video, and notes that for the time being, basic video subscriber losses at the company are a combination of no housing growth and increasing competition from the telcoTV sector -- not services like Netflix, which the CEO equates to simply "reruns." While the Journal's headline insists the CEO has "no fear of web video," Roberts re-iterates that Comcast won't offer their Xfinity Internet video services to those who don't subscribe to TV, something based, in part, on web video. Says Roberts:
Where we can add value, at least in the world that I see today, is taking our existing customers and giving them full access to all content online because they’re subscribers. So, today, we have that enabled for networks like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and Starz. We just made a deal with Time Warner and Turner. I hope we will be able to add to that quickly with NBCUniversal content and others."
Roberts insists that at the moment Internet video is "more friend than foe," and that Comcast may have less to fear than other companies because they "give the best Internet experience, residentially, in this country." Again though, if a company were truly unafraid of the competitive and (r)evolutionary potential of Internet video, they wouldn't be withholding it from paying customers as a standalone option for those uninterested in regular television.
