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Potential Game Changer: Viacom CEO Says Over-the-Top Services — That’s the Streaming of Cable Channels Over the Internet Without Subscribing to a Traditional Cable TV Service — Could Be Rolled Out in 2014

Dec 12, 2013  •  Post A Comment

"Get ready for cable TV without the cable," reports our good friend Claire Atkinson in the New York Post.

Atkinson writes: "A streaming-only bundle of channels, likely with a coast-to-coast reach, may be offered to viewers for the first time in 2014, according to several TV industry heavyweights."

The story adds, "’I think there’s a very strong chance of that,’ Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said of a so-called over-the-top service rolling out next year."

The report quotes a well-known entertainment analyst, Richard Greenfield of BTIG, saying: “After the struggles of Intel, this topic was dead in the water. After the last 24 hours, it sounds like it’s anything but.”

Atkinson writes that Greenfield is referring to "comments by Dauman and others … at the [recent] UBS media conference."

The story says Verizon might be the first to jump into an over-the-top service, and adds: "Verizon is having talks via its FiOS team, and its approaches have been welcomed because it can market a service nationally without running into the same regulatory concerns as traditional players, one major programmer told The Post.

"Speculation has also been centered on a Charlie Ergen-backed Dish-branded over-the-top programming play, and on a Comcast Xfinity streaming service, as being the most likely to provide a package of cable-like programming via the Web."

For more details we urge you to click on the link above and read Atkinson’s original story.

One Comment

  1. Well, Intel was maybe not the right player to begin with, like Microsoft and X-boxes. For that kind of service you would imagine some incumbent closer to the “content” side of things would be right to start such a venture.

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