Internet, Cable, and Telephone Companies May be Equally Positioned to Deliver Contentand Services to Consumers
November 2, 1998
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE) via NewsEdge
Corporation -- Industry executives were
evenly divided on whether consumers will
want their local phone company, long
distance phone company, or cable company
to deliver their Internet, cable, and
telephone services.
The executives were polled at the 1998
Global Convergence Summit, presented by
Business Week and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Thirty-three percent of those polled thought
consumers would choose a local phone
company, 32% thought they would choose a
long-distance company, and 31% thought
they would choose a cable company to
deliver theses services. Only 7% thought
consumers would opt for service delivery
from an electric utility.
More than 500 executives attended the
Summit. They represented a cross-section of
converging industries, with 13% from the
entertainment sector, 17% from media, 16%
from communications companies, 14% from
technology companies, and 19% describing
their company as a hybrid or combination of
these sectors.
Panelists highlighted the advantages their
respective industries had to offer, but noted
that in the end, consumers would decide
based on the quality, convenience, and
pricing of the service. Leo Hindery, President
of Tele-Communications Inc., quoted Wall
Street analysts in stating that the cable
industry is "the lead-horse in the race for the
digital era." Hindery cited cable's broad-band
capability that is already wired into the TV -
" the nerve center of the American
household" - but added that it is still "a race
that virtually anyone can win."
In praising the advantages of today's
Internet, Todd Wagner, vice-chairman, CEO,
and secretary of broadcast.com described it
"as coming out of the silent-movie and into
the talkies." He reminded executives of all
the "PCs sitting on people's desks, in their
office, at home. Those are devices we can
broadcast to, and we can broadcast to them
today. . . We broadcast things that we
never thought of as broadcast capable
before. For example, this conference." As for
the technology to deliver high-quality audio
and video over the Internet, Wagner said, "It
(technology) doesn't go backwards."
Solomon Trujillo, president and CEO of US
West, pointed to DSL technology that will
enable phone companies to "turbo-charge
their copper lines," and thus deliver high
bandwidth into the home or office over the
wireline. Late this year, the company plans
offer cable TV over those lines in Phoenix.
To quote Hindery, "The race is on."
Supporting the findings of the 1998 Global
Convergence Summit poll is the recent
survey for PricewaterhouseCoopers on "Views
of Consumers Towards Technological
Advancements in the U.S. and U.K." While
the survey results for service delivery
preference in the U.S. were similar to the
Summit's poll findings, the
PricewaterhouseCoopers survey also broke
down the results by gender. In the U.S.,
females are more likely to choose a phone
company for their phone and Internet
services (53 percent a local phone company
and 28 percent a long distance phone
company), while men were more likely to
choose a cable company.
The Global Convergence Summit, presented
by Business Week and
PricewaterhouseCoopers, addressed
convergence, consolidation, and competition
among the entertainment, media, technology
and telecommunications industries.
Award-winning journalist Sir David Frost and
Kevin Carton, global entertainment and media
practice leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers,
hosted the day-long event on October 28,
1998. Business Week and
PricewaterhouseCoopers are pleased to have
presented the event with the sponsorship of
France Telecom and Siemens.
About Business Week Executive Programs
Business Week Executive Programs is the
premier producer of elite business
conferences and meetings in North America.
BWEP produces more than a dozen
conferences worldwide annually, from a
private CEO Summit to the Digital Economy
industry gathering each December. In
addition, BWEP produces annual regional
summits in Asia, Europe and Latin America.
About Business Week
Business Week is a comprehensive business
newsmagazine published weekly by The
McGraw-Hill Companies. With its worldwide
editorial staff of more than 240, Business
Week provides in-depth reporting on business
situations not covered in other publications.
Business Week's global circulation of more
than one million translates into 6.3 million
readers each week. Business Week's
international edition, founded in 1981, is
currently read in 132 countries. In addition to
English, Business Week is also published in
Chinese, Polish, and Russian.
Business Week's parent, The McGraw-Hill
Companies, is a 109-year-old multimedia
publishing company serving worldwide
markets in education, business, industry, and
government.
About PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers
(www.pwcglobal.com), one of the world's
largest professional services organizations,
helps its clients build value, manage risk, and
improve their performance by providing
industry depth, delivering global reach and
enhancing revenues and profits. The
PricewaterhouseCoopers Technology,
Info/Comm, and Entertainment Group
addresses business challenges for its clients
including: developing business strategies to
leverage digital technology; marketplace
positioning in industries characterized by
consolidation and convergence; and
identifying new sources of financing.
Drawing on the talents of more than 144,000
people in 152 countries,
PricewaterhouseCoopers provides a full range
of business advisory services to leading
global, national and local companies, and to
public institutions. These services include
management, information technology,
strategic and human resource consulting;
audit, accounting, and tax advice; financial
advisory services including mergers &
acquisitions, business recovery, project
finance, and litigation support; business
process outsourcing services; and legal
services through a global network of
affiliated law firms. |
