Video is at the heart of the brewing battle between the wireless and cable industries, as both telecom sectors chase a new generation of consumer who has made entertainment on mobile devices a usage priority.
Indeed, while cable and satellite pay-TV operators spent the last decade fighting for market share in households, they now must counter the aggressive forces of Verizon and AT&T, which have moved beyond merely compounding wireline competition for video services with bold new mobile programming offerings.
Verizon has jumped out early with its ad-supported Go90 platform, and is learning more and more every day about what its predominantly young-adult audience likes and doesn't like to watch on its smartphones.
For its part, AT&T is using its DirecTV acquisition as a powerful program acquisition driver for a new mobile version of DirecTV service, launching later this year.
Traditional pay-TV operators aren't standing still. In addition to testing a number of IP-based video services, Comcast is working on its own entry into the wireless market. For wireless operators, watching the most formidable brand in the video business potentially enter the 5G market, leveraging video assets like the X1 platform, is not an insignificant threat.
Companies like Dish Network, meanwhile, are creating agnostic services like Sling TV that can live in both mobile and terrestrial worlds.
These are exactly the topics FierceWireless, FierceTelecom and FierceCable will delve into on Monday, May 16, in Boston in conjunction with the INTX show. From 7:15 a.m. to 11 a.m. we are going to bring together top executives from both cable and wireless to talk about the intersection of these two giant industries in order to highlight the areas for collaboration -- and for conflict. Sign up now to hear from:
- Karri Kuoppamaki, VP, Network Technology Development and Strategy, T-Mobile, US
- Vito Forlenza, Senior Director, TV Everywhere Content & Product Strategy, Comcast Cable
- Ben Weinberger, Senior Vice President & Chief Product Officer, Sling TV
- Stephen Bye, Chief Technology Officer, C Spire
- Adam Saenger, Vice President, Global Product Development & Management, Level 3
- Belal Hamzeh, Vice President, Wireless Technologies, CableLabs
- And more!
We're going to break the morning discussion into three key sessions -- 5G, Mobile Video and SDN/NFV -- that get directly to the heart of the cable vs. wireless question. And to be clear, this event won't include sluggish PowerPoint presentations or watered-down corporate speak. Fierce editors Mike Dano, Sean Buckley and I will be asking the tough questions.
And, perhaps most importantly, you'll be able to join in. We will definitely take questions from the audience, so you'll be able to speak directly to our lineup of top-level speakers.
Of course, since we know you do your best thinking on a good breakfast, we're getting up extra early to cook you up a spread. So sign up now by clicking on this link! I look forward to seeing you in Boston. —Daniel