Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) CEO Glenn Britt has finally said aloud what everyone has been saying in the back room: Cable is a broadband-first industry where TV entertainment is an application, not a driver.
Britt, speaking at a Sanford C. Bernstein investor conference, said that Time Warner Cable is moving away from its focus on a bundled triple play of services and towards a broadband-first philosophy where it's OK if subscribers get their entertainment TV from some other source.
"We've become less of a TV company than we were previously," Britt said. "We should have more broadband in homes that choose to buy satellite for video."
Earnings reports almost universally across-the-board have shown MSOs gaining broadband subscribers--and voice subscribers as part of the package--while shedding basic subscribers faster than contestants on The Biggest Loser shed pounds.
"Broadband is becoming more and more central to people's lives" and "has become our primary product," Britt said.
For more:
- Marketwatch has this story
Special Report: Cable in the first quarter of 2011
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