Michael Church

Comcast Triples Q4 Earnings, Outstanding New Cable Subscriptions

Comcast investors need to ask themselves several questions:

1. How does comcast stack up to IPTV and Fiber to the Home?

2. How does comcast deal with the unbundling of video content?

3. How does comcast handle the millions of Triple play customers whose new cable service will jump dramatically in price once the initial offering expires? And that is in the face of competition coming online from several angles.

Not a pretty place.

Fiber to the Home: A World of Headaches for Comcast

While trying to be poetic, my point was obviously missed. I do have a basic understanding of these networks, I am not an engineer, but i am aware of hybrid fiber networks. And while I agree Cablecos can certainly squeeze more out of their networks, that still doesn't mean its enough. Comcast may very well be a ferrari, but the Bells are building a maserati thats faster and cooler. The real winner is the future content distributors who ride these networks for free.

Bells dont care about cable, they are selling bandwidth. They may have a video offering now, but its a puppet offering. Comcast just got caught with its pants down as the rest of tech land unbundled video content for them right before their eyes. If you think their network is currently capable with competing with that model you are mistaken. Set top boxes are a sizable investment of theirs, and converting to an unbundled content offering would cost them significant cash, from the software on up.

On Demand you say??? Yeah that will stack up well to a Microsoft or iTunes based platform. Gotta love those Motorola set top boxes!!

Price action may say i'm wrong right now, but the Bells are tolling. Forgive me if i doubt Comcast can innovate beyond just being "Comcastic" After all this is a company that has never had to compete before, maybe thats why they are feeling so Comcastic.