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By Paul S. Maxwell
That real estate mantra should be changed just a little bit and applied (every moment) to cable television operations: Local, Local, Local.
It's a mantra cable often professes...but often doesn't follow through with. A shame.
Local is the hole card.
And if cable doesn't play it now, the telcos will.
We've got some real opportunities...just take a look at who's going to be the next face of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (see "System of the Year: Charter Long Beach," this issue).
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My "local" soapbox was piqued by an article in The Wall Street Journal Dec. 1 (page B1) that was a companion to a major feature called "Targeting Wal-Mart." The article, entitled "Texas Grocer Thrives by Catering to Locals," outlined how HEB successfully competes with Wal-Mart and holds on to its market share even when the latter builds major grocery super-centers.
The key?
No guessing now.
The answer is: "catering to local tastes."
Surprised?
Meanwhile, you're about to be challenged--big time--at the local level by the RBOCs.
We can assume that one of the biggest agendas of the incoming NCTA president will be making certain that RBOCs are faced with a level playing field on the local regulatory front as they enter the delivery of local video signals marketplace.
The RBOCs, naturally, don't want to pay local franchise fees. That would be OK with cable, if the local cable franchise fees were dropped.
That won't happen.
But, believe it or nor, here's an argument from Dorothy Atwood, SVP of regulatory policy at SBC
(as quoted in BusinessWeek): "A franchise obligation is right for the first provider. But when you're talking about competitive
alternatives, you want to encourage that investment."
Wow! Talk about chutzpah!
Cable, history's only privately financed telecommunications "utility" (a word I do not accept) that didn't have a guaranteed rate of return, should welcome competition that built its infrastructure off those guarantees!
I don't think so.
But they've got their own hole card. One that cable championed. The Federal Confusion Commission ruled that VoIP was exempt from local regulation.
And the RBOCs can argue, what's the difference between VoIP and video over IP?
Good question.
Digital kind of makes everything the same.
Or not.
That isn't the only place the RBOCs are arguing for sort of special dispensation...SBC and its ilk want to "overbuild" only in select neighborhoods.
I don't think so.
Just ask Michael Guido, mayor of Dearborn, Mich., and the chair of the task force on telecommunications for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
And on another part of the growing battlefront, SBC's recent announcement of partnerships with Microsoft and EchoStar--somewhat lacking, naturally, in details--suggests that SBC wants to offer, via some form of VOD, EchoStar programming
I just wonder what the programmers think about that? Sounds to me like a whole new revenue stream for them. (A cable conundrum: The biggest upsides for our programming partners will be, perhaps, coming from telcos...something of which to be aware.)
Meanwhile, let's focus back on what local means to you.
How about local VOD offerings for tourists in your town?
Or for your town's tourists headed somewhere else?
(Disclosure: Look for information soon.)
Or cable-exclusive programming?
Think every niche is covered already and has to be on the satellite?
Think again.
And take your local mayor to lunch.
Very soon!
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