Cutting the Cord: Will Online Video Kill the Cable Companies?

   While the demise of the cable industry is often exaggerated, a panel at the Streaming Media East conference was in agreement that changes in strategy are necessary. In some cases, they're already occurring.   By Jose Castillo

  One of the hot topics at Streaming Media East was cord-cutting, and a first day panel titled "Cutting the Cord on TV" examined the trend. While the demise of the cable industry is often exaggerated, the panel was in agreement that changes in strategy are necessary and in some cases already occurring. Traditional cable providers are offering bundled broadband and ultimately will serve video content in whatever method consumers want. Another hot topic discussed was piracy. As Peter Kafka from All Things Digital joked, "We don't have anyone on the panel representing piracy." Tom Gorke from MTV pointed out that piracy went down when high quality content was offered for legal download soon after it aired. In a final discussion Marc DeBevoise from Starz was pushed to comment on his company's relationship with Netflix. "It's very, very tough to say if we will be on Netflix in a year," he relented.

  From Hulu to Netflix, streaming video is having a powerful impact on the traditional television industry. But are consumers really cutting the cord and bypassing cable operators in favor of online video? With the broadcast networks facing some of the same threats as the newspaper industry, will services like TV Everywhere and over-the-top (OTT) content be the industry's savior? These topics and more will be addressed by this panel of content heavyweights.