Cable executives look for way to get paid for online content
April 3, 2009
Executives from the major cable companies gathered this week for the industry's Cable Show '09, where they hoped to find common ground around a plan to protect the subscription business model from the rise of free online video content.
Several CEOs said Thursday that they're looking to offer cable programs on the internet and mobile devices for free to people who already subscribe to cable or satellite, noting that some of the most-watched programs on the web have led to higher ratings on cable.
Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes last month introduced his version of the idea, called TV Everywhere, which has generated some positive response from the industry, according to reports. But that still leaves the problem of how to get more people to pay for it.
"We're just saying that if you use the internet for free, you should just get what you've already got in your home," Bewkes said in a panel discussion, according to USA Today. "We ought to be taking the ad model from cable networks and move it to broadband."
But Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a speech that preventing people from seeing content online unless they are subscribers "could be viewed as both anti-consumer and anti-technology and would be something we would find difficult to embrace."
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