While we still don't have specifics about 21st Century Fox's plans to launch over-the-top services directly to consumers, company COO Chase Carey continues to boldly discuss their broad strokes.
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And speaking to investors Thursday during Fox's first-quarter earnings call, he compared the launch of these new services (whenever they are) to his tenure at DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV). (All quotes were provided courtesy of Seeking Alpha.)
"One of the reasons DirecTV competed successfully against the cable industry was it was better experience," he said. "And I think sort of the ease of use and simplicity are probably some of the most under-appreciated assets and virtues in the business. Actually, we're excited by it. Look, we've got--we probably amongst many of our peers have more first-hand experience in dealing directly. We have, I said, businesses internationally that deal directly with consumers that create consumer interfaces and manage relationships with consumers. So we think over-the-top for us specifically is an interesting opportunity. We think working with third parties to create more competition and new experiences is an important opportunity."
Carey hedged, noting that the majority of consumers still want pay-TV bundles.
He added, however, that a growing number of consumers are interested in alternatives
"Everybody talks about the millennials, and I think the ability to create packages or offers that they speak to that generation is also an interesting opportunity," he said. Obviously, they're consumers we don't reach today… I think it's important everything we do is adding to the pie, not cannibalizing the pie, creating offers that speak to customers that want something different. We think that will be a relatively small minority but it's important for us to do. And we look forward to developing all of that."
For more:
- visit Fox's investor relations page
- read this Seeking Alpha transcript
Earnings Summary: Sizing up pay-TV earnings for the first quarter of 2015
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