Frank, judging by the defensive responses you are receiving to your well-thought out post, ATHM does seem to be becoming an internut.
From the business summary statement carried on Yahoo: "ATHM is a provider of internet services over the cable television infrastructure and leased digital telecommunication lines to consumers and businesses. "
However, this statement does a disservice to the important fact that "the Company's primary offering, the @Home service, allows residential subscribers to connect their personal computers via cable modems to a high-speed Internet backbone network developed and managed by the Company." (from their SEC filing). So ATHM is a little bit of an ISP, a little bit of an infrastructure provider/developer, and a little bit of a Portal (which they call @Media), trying to leverage its high-speed servers, routers, and growing backbone by striking relationships with as many regional cable companies as possible -- 18 so far in North Americal and Europe, according to their SEC filing.
However, ATHM is not, IMO, an access company, per se. Although, this point is seldom articulated, rather it portends the abilities of all of its distribution partners which tends to obscure the distinction.
I don't know how you would define an access company. But if you look at AOL, or most other ISP/Portals, they all depend on external partners, from leasing backbone bandwidth to partnering with content providers. I think all of these companies are groping to find what will evolve as the winning combination of access, content, and infrastructure for their business model. ATHM is betting heavily on its high-speed services, and has a lead at this point but the game is still in the first inning. |
