In The Loop

It’s always exciting to attend the TMF Management World conference. I had a chance to speak at last year’s event in Nice, and I’m looking forward to the discussions this year in Dublin.

One area I’m especially intrigued by are the sessions related to “smart grid/smart utilities.” It will be interesting to see what lessons the utility sector takes from the experience of telecoms.

My prediction is that there are many technology lessons to be learned; however, the primary lesson will be about the criticality of putting the customer at the center of the model. That means gaining a greater understanding of your customer, developing products/plans that meet their requirements and giving them access to information about their consumption patterns. Giving customers the power to be better informed and thereby better able to make choices to suit their individual needs.

It’s a lesson that took the telecom industry a while to learn and a valuable one that utilities should take to heart as soon as possible.

This topic is near and dear to my heart, but it’s just one of the many discussions I look forward to sharing with colleagues new and old at TMF Management World this year. Let me know your thoughts here, or better yet, meet us there and join the conversation. More…

A couple of weeks ago, we joined the gathering of independent cable operators at the American Cable Association annual Summit in Washington D.C. Attendance was fantastic, and the energy in the room and conference sessions was high. Even the social activities seemed to hit the spot for everyone, including the Capitol Steps performance at the House of Sweden.

It's an exciting time in cable. New bandwidth demands from consumers, digital TV, 3D TV and multi-platform technologies are making cable operators part of the American household more than ever before. At the same time, the fragmentation of media is creating uncertainty about cable operators' role — specifically what happens to TV with all of the Internet usage, over-the-top (OTT) Netflix-style TV services, and cellular data rates that are approaching TV-like video viewing. Most people seem to agree that cable TV remains at the heart of U.S. households' entertainment centers, but the world is definitely evolving.

The regulatory environment is also intense. We heard from ACA Chairman Steve Friedman of Wave Broadband about the FCC's review of retransmission — something cable operators have called for for years. We also heard from U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, chair of the House Communications & Technology Subcommittee, about the latest news on retransmission, spectrum policy and Net Neutrality debate.

One thing was clear from the hundreds of attendees at this year's summit: America's independent cable industry is healthy and vibrant — and determined to seek the systems, programming, and environment they need to keep delivering great content to customers all across the U.S. Cycle30 was glad to be there, and glad to be a part of the ACA supporting the cable industry.

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