The cable industry is certainly in an interesting place today – new competitive drivers are forcing changes across virtually every aspect of the cable service stack.
For example, momentum behind online video is forcing network operators to investigate ways to deliver their own video offerings outside of traditional video pathways, and to devices that may not be under their control. Examples of this trend stretch from Comcast’s Watchable and Xfinity Stream services to Altice’s emerging Zive play (and that doesn’t even count operators’ ongoing TV Everywhere efforts).
In the internet service arena, players ranging from Comcast to Charter are investing millions of dollars in DOCSIS 3.1 network upgrades to meet the 1-gig challenge from fiber players and their own super-fast internet offerings.
And of course there is the allure of wireless technologies, in which cable companies have long dabbled. Today, many of the nation’s cable operators offer public Wi-Fi services, and actions by some of the industry’s major players – namely Charter and Comcast – indicate they may well hope to build out their own wider wireless offerings. Already Comcast has signaled its interest in the Internet of Things space via its plans to test LoRa wireless network technology.
And on top of all this activity, two of cable’s largest network operators are also in the midst of heavy-duty network-integration efforts: Charter with its purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks and Altice with its own purchases of Cablevision and Suddenlink.
These issues raise an important question: Who exactly will navigate through this space? Who are the managers and engineers calling the shots at top players like Charter and Altice? Where did they come from, who do they report to, and how is their group structured? And most importantly, what immediate challenges are they facing? For a deeper look at these top CTOs in cable, click below.
(This is the second part of a three-part series. Click here for a look at the CTOs in the wireless industry; tomorrow we’ll look at the CTOs in the telco industry.)
We hope you enjoy it. –Mike | @mikeddano