Speaking on the company's earnings call with the press and analysts, Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus this week promised that the company is doing everything in its power to kill the traditional cable box. Marcus confirmed that the company is conducting a trial in New York City starting in a few weeks that will provide customers with the company's usual slate of channels, but all delivered via broadband.
"Where we're headed is the ability of customers to access the complete video product without having to rent a set-top box from us," said CEO Rob Marcus on a call with analysts.
Under the trial, Time Warner Cable says it's giving customers a free Roku, with Time Warner Cable service as an app. Marcus argued that the company's eyeing such a possibility since it would save the carrier the cost of a traditional truck roll installation (assuming the home already had broadband).
"You can simply type in your username and password and you have video," he said. He also noted that this would technically not be an "over the top" service that fully relied on the traditional Internet.
“Our IP video offering is not over-the-top,” Marcus said. “This is a video service that we are delivering over our facilities, not anybody else’s. Over time there might be a TV Everywhere component to this just like there is one to our traditional video offering. But what we’re talking about here is a managed video service over our network.”
On the positive side, the idea could let cable companies compete on the video front outside of their traditional cable footprint. On the other hand, it would eliminate the millions of dollars made each quarter via set top box rental fees. It's also worth remembering that since they're being acquired by Charter, Time Warner Cable won't even technically exist six months from now, making this a trial that may never seen broader deployment.