After a conversation covering broadband, wireless spectrum, DOCSIS and other “wonky” corners of Charter Communications’ business, CEO Tom Rutledge saved his pay-TV punches for the closing stretch.“We still think about it a lot,” the exec said of cable TV in a keynote session at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.
With 15.2 million residential video customers, Charter is the No. 2 cable operator in the U.S., though cord-cutting has steadily trimmed that subscriber base and its business strategy has evolved.“There’s more damage to come in video,” Rutledge said. “There’s nothing about the old model that’s really changed.
The price keeps going up. If you look at all the rights fees that broadcasters paid in the most recent NFL deal. Baseball players want more.
Everybody wants more. So there’s nothing to really constrain the cost of live sports in the linear business and that’s still the glue that holds it together.
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