Could cable subscribers one day go to the Web to watch their favorite TV channel, much like they do today with their television sets? That day is coming, at least according to Walt Disney Chief Executive Robert A. Iger, who clearly wants his company to be among the first to offer the capability. “We are certainly open to exploring that possibility,” Iger said in a keynote speech on Apr. 2 to the annual Cable Show in Washington, D.C.
Iger was treading on potentially treacherous territory, as content owners and cable operators have been eyeing one another warily these days over the issue of “authentication,” the latest industry buzzword. Authentication would effectively require content owners who offer TV shows to consumers online to certify that those folks aren’t canceling their cable bills to get the online feeds. How they would do this isn’t clear, although cable companies, such as Time Warner Cable, are already working on ways to bill folks for the amount of time they use the Internet.
Needless to say, cable operators want to be assured that their customers aren’t “cutting the cord,” as Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn A. Britt said recently, in order to go channel surfing online. Moreover, the cable operators have a point: They pay billions each year to Disney, Viacom, and other content creators to carry their channels and aren’t likely to take kindly to seeing their customers go off — with a content owner’s help — and watch it free online.
Laying Down His Marker
Iger clearly wasn’t offering anything close to caving in to cable industry demands. Giving consumers ABC or some other network online, he said, “would be an interesting and potentially compelling feature,” if the two sides could work out a compromise on the authentication issue.
What’s not likely to happen, at least in Iger’s…