It is a known fact: with the arrival of a new promising technology comes a horde of doomsday prophets that predict the demise of the then prevalent technology. The TV would bring a deathblow to radio, and the Video and DVD player would be the death of cinema.  We all know that the technology industry is not as black and white as some would like us to believe. It is also dawning on us that the internet is a real threat to the newspaper industry, but we thought the entertainment/content industry would not be too much affected. However, the increasing availability of broadband connections is making rich media transfer and downloads a popular timepass. Media execs: times are a’changing.

In yesterday’s NYT appeared an article about the future of Cable TV. I delivered a keynote at the European Broadband Debate in 2002, where I promoted an idea of micro-payment/on-demand TV programming, and I called for the scrapping of the “packaged deal”. I was a proponent of a-la carte programming and TV-on-demand then and today.

As a result of the Cable TV industry’s problems and shortcomings, the Cable systems industry (with players like Comcast) is being dragged down too. It’s most likely a trend that is not going to fade away. In fact, Pandora’s Box had been opened by the very same industry; the cable industry did a noble job by forcing the telcos to compete in terms of broadband… but now they will be victimized by their own success. Their sword was double-edged. It’s only the beginning, but TV programming and video content will appear everywhere online. The quality today is crap, but once higher speeds become available, HD quality content will be uploaded. The Cable and TV industry has to find a solution, else they will be out of business in ten years from now.