While the industry grapples with labor shortages for skilled fiber technicians as incumbents and competitors alike build out massive fiber networks, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson and Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries told the opening general session of the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo that the so-called “talent gap” is largely dependent on the projects at hand.

“There is so much activity going on all at once,” Watson told a Tuesday audience at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. “Every operator is dealing with not only a significant upgrade to the networks, all mapped out, anticipated to improve multiple assets of connectivity, but there are also new things like new passings. …There’s a bit of a crunch in terms of the sheer amount of people needed to pull all of this off.”

Also read: Home Networks Are the New Industry Battleground (Expo) 

Watson said providers that are changing their networks, or large components thereof, to virtualize and add capability need a different set of skills.

“It does require that people get trained up on how to do this,” Watson said. “Our people are adaptable. The front-line leadership is on their toes, working hard, and they’re dealing with all of these changes.”

At Liberty Global, which derives about half of its revenue from mobile, the needs are different. Fries said LGI isn’t having much trouble finding people with experience in 5G or other mobile tech, but he sees a gap in attracting people who can help the company move into new businesses.

“It’s the things we want to do,” Fries said. “We need more data experts, we’re finding it hard to find  people who can help us get us into new revenue streams.”

For most cable companies, 10G is one of those new products with the most potential, and it’s also one of the main themes of the Cable-Tec Expo. Fries said 10G is the technology he is most excited about because he’s already deploying it: Liberty Global has rolled out a 10G product in Switzerland for $50 per month.

Comcast hasn’t rolled out 10G yet, but earlier this month it launched a multi-year initiative to bring multi-gig internet to 34 cities by the end of 2025. Comcast intends to eventually put multi-gig service in front of 50 million homes and businesses.

“It really pieces together an efficient and effective network evolution for us,” Watson said.

Fries added that the European competitive landscape — he estimated that nearly 100% of Liberty Global’s markets will be overbuilt with fiber over the next three years by another company — makes the 10G evolution a necessity for him.

“It’s urgent for us,” Fries said. “It’s not a ‘nice to have’ — it’s life or death.”

Both Watson and Fries thanked the tech side of the business for keeping the networks running during the pandemic, a period that put an unprecedented strain on the infrastructure as usage ballooned as most of the country had to work and learn from home.

While both Fries and Watson praised cable for stepping up to the challenge, Fries said the goodwill associated with cable broadband during the pandemic is also an opportunity the industry shouldn’t let pass.

“Let’s bottle that magic,” Fries said. “During that pandemic, not only did we rise to the occasion and our networks did everything that we hoped they would do, we built up a lot better relationship with our consumers, and the businesses we serve, hospitals and regulators and government. That’s a special thing we have to hold onto. We’ve got to build on that. We can’t just take that for granted.” ■

Liberty Global, the Denver-based international cable company controlled by industry legend John Malone, said that it is interested in pursuing deals with mobile carriers in Ireland and Poland and hopes to have agreements in hand by the end of the year.

On its Q4 earnings call with analysts, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said pursuing such deals was “high on our list” of priorities.

Liberty already has about 1 million cable and 120,000 mobile subscribers in Ireland through its Virgin Media unit. In Poland, its UPC Poland operation has about 3.3 million video, internet and telephone customers and 62,700 mobile subscribers through an MVNO agreement.

Also Read: Cadent Teams with Liberty on Addressable in Europe

The Irish mobile market is dominated by three carriers -- Vodafone; Three Group, owned by international telecom conglomerate CK Hutchison; and Eir, owned by French billionaire Xavier Niel. In Poland, potential targets could include Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Play and Polkomtel. Liberty tried to expand its presence in Poland in 2018 with the purchase of Multimedia Polska for about $876 million, but abandoned that deal because of regulatory opposition and difficulties in coming to financial terms with the sellers. 

Fries added that Liberty Global has been aggressive in the M&A space, completing more than $80 billion worth of transactions in the past five years, that allowed the company to exit or enter markets, depending on its scale. Most recently, Liberty Global’s agreement to merge its Virgin Media business with Telefonica’s O2 in a joint venture valued at about $38 billion is scheduled to close in the summer pending regulatory approval. 

“I think the way we’ve done it depends on the market - we either exited, bought or merged, and we think in all cases we’ve done the right thing, so we now have the number one or two player in these markets and that gives the scale to be, I would say, opportunistic and creative," Fries said on the call. 

Ireland and Poland, where Fries said Liberty Global hasn’t had the same M&A activity, will be looked at closely, especially in the fixed mobile space. 

“The markets that we haven’t yet done anything in, Ireland and Poland for example, of course we’re going to continue to evaluate what the right long-term future for those markets is in terms of their strategic footprint and whether there’s a fixed mobile opportunity, so you should assume that that’s high on our list,” Fries said. “It would be surprising to me if we ended 2021 without continued transformation even in those two markets, whatever that might look like.”

In 2020, Liberty Global said revenue declined 1.5% to $12 billion and EBITDA fell 3.9% to $4.9 billion. In the UK and Ireland, where broadband customers increased by 100,000 for the year, revenue was flat at about $6.6 billion. 

Liberty Global said it has created a fund to help its employees and their families who have been significantly impacted by COVID-19, the Liberty Global Response Fund.

Liberty Global said the program will be funded initially by senior executives and members of its board of directors who will donate $2 million out of their remaining 2020 salaries and directors fees. The amount includes $1 million from CEO Mike Fries. Those initially contributing to the fund include 15 senior executives working at its central offices and operating companies in the US, UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Eastern Europe.

Liberty Global has agreed to match all contributions for the fund, bringing the total to $4 million. All of Liberty Global’s 27,000 employees will be eligible to apply confidentially for assistance through an online portal.

“At Liberty Global, we are a family first,” Fries said in a press release. “On a day-to-day basis we are doing everything we can to protect the safety and well being of our employees, but sometimes that is not enough. Those with elderly parents, partners out of work, or other challenges need additional help to get through this crisis. We want them to know that we are here for them in their time of need. I am hopeful that the Liberty Global Response Fund continues to grow in size and will serve as a model for future support inside our company.”

Liberty Global is one of the largest pay TV service providers in Europe via its Virgin Media, Telenet, UPC and Vodafone/Ziggo units. Those companies continue to deliver critical broadband, voice and television services throughout its operating areas and have initiated support programs to help customers during the COVID-19 pandemic such as:

Virgin Media

• Offering unlimited minutes and a 10GB data boost to mobile customers in the UK at no extra cost

• Providing enhanced connectivity to critical public services such as NHS hospitals

• Delivering extra TV channels for free, including kids, drama and documentary programming

Telenet

• Working with care homes in Belgium to connect elderly people in with their families through robotic virtual communication tools

• Providing its TV product Yelo TV to over 1,000 hospitals, nursing homes and other care institutions free of charge, plus WiFi vouchers to underprivileged students

• Donating laptops to school children from disadvantaged communities

• Offering double data to mobile customers until the end of the lockdown period in Belgium

Virgin Media Ireland

• Providing free public WiFi hotspots in communities across Ireland

• Offering free anti cyber-attack technology to hospitals

UPC Switzerland

• Providing free speed upgrades to 100 Mbps to all customers

• Upgrading all B2B customers to its top broadband package and providing security packages for free

UPC Poland

• Launching programs to provide free broadband for teachers

• Running free coding lessons for children

UPC Slovakia

• Upgrading all customers to 150 Mbps, at no extra cost

VodafoneZiggo

• Launching a special telephone helpdesk for the elderly

• Helping educational institutions with remote teaching

• Introduced new online portal for businesses and their employees working from home

The deal by John Malone’s Liberty Global to sell off some of its European assets to rival Vodafone is another step in the international cable giant’s strategy to focus more on its U.K. cable and mobile operations, which after years of investment appear to be turning the corner.

The Vodafone deal will give Liberty Global nearly $23 billion in cash and stock for its cable assets in Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary. The deal officially scrubs Malone and Liberty from the German market, Europe’s second-largest, which it had tried for years to dominate. Now that market will be left to Vodafone, already Germany’s largest cable operator, and that country’s No. 2 player, telco Deutsche Telekom.

With the deal, Vodafone will widen the cable TV gap between it and Deutsche Telekom, but the phone company will retain its broadband dominance. After the Liberty deal is closed, Vodafone would have about 14 million cable customers, compared with 3.2 million for DT. According to company reports, Deutsche Telekom controls about 13.4 million broadband customers in Germany, while Liberty and Vodafone will have a combined 10 million.

Some analysts believe the deal will have a rough time obtaining approval, but Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said it should pass muster with the European Union in about a year.

Related: Regulators Likely to Block or Restrict Vodafone-Liberty Global Deal: Analyst

In an interview with CNBC, Fries said the German market is “screaming for consolidation and a real national challenger.” Germany has been a growing, profitable market for Liberty Global — revenue rose 8.7% in the first quarter and operating cash flow was up 11.8% — although its pay TV subscriber growth has slowed. Still, the properties attracted a hefty multiple.

Fries told CNBC prior to Liberty Global’s Q1 earnings announcement that the decision to sell to Vodafone was simple, as the price was right.

At $22.7 billion, the Vodafone deal values the assets at about 11.5 times 2018 estimated cash flow, a huge premium to Liberty Global’s current trading multiple of about 7 times.

“It’s a premium valuation,” Fries told CNBC, adding that this isn’t the first time Liberty Global has sold assets, noting the 2006 sale of its French properties to Altice N.V. “We’re trying to be agile, smart and see the playing field clearly. Long-term, this is going to be a great transaction.”

But this deal has the potential to be transformative for all parties involved. Vodafone gets another arrow in its quad-play quiver of video, voice, data and wireless services. Liberty Global gets a great payday, but is essentially shedding one-third of its business.

With the Vodafone deal and a pending transaction to sell its Austrian operations to Deutsche Telekom for $2.3 billion (expected to close in the second half of this year), Liberty will pare the number of countries it operates in from 11 to six and its total customers from 22 million to 11 million.

No Brexit Here

With those deals, Liberty Global’s Virgin Media U.K. operations become even more strategically important, as they will represent more than half of Liberty’s total cash flow. And while Virgin Media has struggled in the past — subscriber growth has been sluggish, and with 5.9 million video customers it is a distant No. 2 to top pay TV service provider Sky (23 million) — it has started to turn the corner, at least financially.

Revenue growth at Virgin Media has soared in the past five quarters, from 1.7% in Q1 2017 to 5.2% in Q1 2018. At the same time, operating cash flow has grown from about 1% in Q1 2017 to 5.5% in Q1 2018, Liberty reported.

Liberty is also pumping money into the U.K. business. It rolled out its new advanced set-top for cable customers, V6, to 500,000 households in Q1; the product is currently in 41% of Virgin Media’s homes. And in 2014 it started building a fiber network, called Project Lightning, that is expected to reach 4 million homes by the end of 2019 at a cost of about $3.9 billion.

The buildout has hit some snags and last year was revamped because of delays and problems with independent contractors in some communities. But the project is ongoing, and with $13 billion in cash from the Vodafone sale, Virgin could have the resources to accelerate Project Lightning and perhaps build out its own mobile network.

Mobile is beginning to emerge as a growth area for Virgin, which has about 3 million customers through a Mobile Virtual Network Operator agreement with U.K. wireless company BT. Virgin added 69,000 post-paid mobile subscribers in the U.K. and Ireland in Q1, Liberty Global said, 89% higher than the previous year. Overall, mobile revenue growth has turned from a negative 8% in Q1 2017 to positive 5% in Q1 2018.

In a research note, Pivotal Research Group CEO and senior media & communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak praised the deal for its robust multiples. For Liberty, he added, the task will be to sustain its financial growth, but there could be room for other deals.

“Like most of the rest of the cable industry, Liberty Global likely remains mainly about sizeable cash flows (and deployment of those cash flows) in 2019,” Wlodarczak wrote, adding that Virgin Media could be a possible target of Comcast, should Comcast’s bid for U.K. satellite company Sky fail.

Fries was encouraged by Virgin’s performance, but also left the door open should a similar opportunity arise.

“We have a really strategically complete business today in the U.K.,” Fries told CNBC. “We’re happy with it, we’re going to create great value over the long term. If somebody comes up and says they have to own it, we’ll pick up the phone, of course. But at this point, we’re happy.”

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries will be the first of two general session keynote speakers when the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and its global arm, the International Society of Broadband Experts™ (ISBE), host SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2017 on Oct. 18, in Denver.

Fries will discuss a wide range of topics during his keynote conversation, including how the convergence of wireline and wireless is helping to drive new business opportunities for pay-TV providers.

Fries joins another top cable executive – Charter Communications chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge – at the Cable-Tec Expo general session.  Rutledge will offer keynote remarks on the future of cable telecommunications and how network innovation will be a significant contributor to business results.

“With multiple industry organizations holding events during Expo Week, the eyes of the industry will be on SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2017,” said SCTE-ISBE CEO Mark Dzuban in a statement.  “Mike Fries’ insights and vision will underscore the impact of technology innovation, seamless product deployment and SCTE•ISBE in helping all sectors of our industry achieve success in a rapidly changing marketplace.”

Under Fries, Liberty Global as grown to provide broadband, entertainment, voice and mobile services to 25 million customers in more than 30 countries. A founding member of the management team that launched the company’s international expansion over 25 years ago, Fries was named president and CEO of Liberty Global in 2005. Fries also serves as the company ‘s vice chairman, alongside founder and chairman Dr. John Malone.

“Technology and constant innovation are the keys to keeping our customers happy in this ever changing digital world,” Fries said in a statement.  “SCTE•ISBE and its Cable-Tec Expo play vital roles in delivering the education, the standards leadership and the technology advances that will make this happen.”

SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo will be held Oct. 17-20 at the Colorado Convention Center. Expo Week begins Oct. 17 with the start of almost four-dozen technical workshops, as well as the Cable TV Pioneers Annual Banquet and Class of 2017 induction ceremonies. Registration and additional information on registration options are available at http://expo.scte.org.

Washington — There will be a lot of new wrinkles surrounding the Cable Hall of Fame’s 2017 induction ceremony, set for Washington, D.C.’s Grand Hyatt on April 26.

For one thing, the 20th annual ceremony will no longer coincide with INTX, the annual convention of NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, which had also been set for the nation’s capital before the trade group opted to “sunset” the event last year. For another, The Cable Center for the first time this year will honor a television series — HBO’s groundbreaking 1999-2007 mob-and-family drama The Sopranos — as a member of its class of enshrinees. Accepting will be the show’s creator, David Chase.

Other inductees are: Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal; Jill Campbell, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Cox Communications; Michael T. Fries, CEO of Liberty Global; Ken Lowe, chairman, president and CEO, Scripps Networks Interactive; and David Zaslav, president and CEO, Discovery Communications. Honorees were chosen for their leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation in media.

Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign correspondent for NBC News and host of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, will serve as master of ceremonies.

“This year’s Cable Hall of Fame honorees are truly the best of the best,” Michael Willner, president and CEO of Penthera Partners and chairman of The Cable Center’s board of directors, said in a statement. “They are leaders of some of the most influential companies in the world, and have shaped the industry’s operations, programming and our society. We are thrilled to induct our first series into the Cable Hall of Fame as well. The Sopranos was the seminal series that proved television was more than the broadcasting networks alone, and we are excited to pay tribute to the impact it had on the growth and success of our industry.”

Also to be honored in Washington is CommScope founder Frank Drendel, the 2017 recipient of the Bresnan Ethics in Business Award.

Since 1998, 121 men and women have been inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame, the Denver-based Cable Center said.

“It is an honor to welcome these individuals into the Cable Hall of Fame, and to recognize our first television program,” Cable Center CEO Jana Henthorn said in a statement. “The passion, drive and thought leadership displayed by all of the honorees has steered our industry into the international powerhouse it is today, and we look forward to celebrating their achievements at the Cable Hall of Fame celebration.”

Profiles provided courtesy of The Cable Center.

Steve Burke
CEO, NBCUniversal

As the son of broadcasting mogul Dan Burke, and brother to Bill Burke, co-founder of Argos Pictures, you could say that Steve Burke has the media business in his DNA. In fact, Burke has credited his father as one of his greatest influences

“He taught me, by example, you can have a successful career without sacrificing your family life,” Burke said.

Burke knows about success. A career trajectory beginning with 12 years at The Walt Disney Co., where he advanced to president and chief operating officer of Euro Disney; and culminating with chief operating officer of Comcast, gave him the necessary skills to take the helm as CEO of NBCUniversal when Comcast acquired it in 2011. He has innumerable accomplishments overseeing the film, television and theme park companies that comprise NBCUniversal. The NBCU portfolio carries some of the most popular programs on television today. On the theme park side, Burke has fans of the Harry Potter franchise under his spell with attractions in Orlando, Fla.; Los Angeles; and Japan.

Burke credits this success in part to NBCUniversal’s culture, which he fostered. “We have some of the best people in the industry working at NBC, our cable channels, Universal film, our theme parks and more. We also have a culture where people genuinely feel like they are part of a team.”

Burke’s management philosophy? Think like an owner, not a renter.

“When you have a company as big as ours, you need to have talented executives who treat their part of the company as if it was their own,” he said. “We allow them to confront problems and make decisions that are at times unpopular, but are for the long term good of the business.”

He learned this from his other mentor, Comcast founder Ralph Roberts. “He was someone who built for the long-term. He was a wonderful man who made every room he was in more productive because of his presence.”

Throughout Burke’s long career, his family has anchored him. “The most important thing in my life by far is my wife and five children. They have given me the greatest joy and they are good at putting me in my place when I deserve it.”

Jill Campbell
Executive VP and chief operating officer, Cox Communications

Early in Jill Campbell’s career at Cox, she took some advice from Curt Hockemeier, her boss at the time, to get an MBA and move into an operations role. Although there were a growing number of women in marketing, communications and finance, there weren’t many women in operations.

Campbell earned her MBA in 15 months while simultaneously working full-time and raising her family. Gradually, she started taking on more operations work. When Hockemeier left to get his MBA, he appointed her as acting general manager, a path she continued on that led to her becoming the highest-ranking woman in cable operations today.

Campbell has been at Cox for 35 years and acknowledges that staying with one company for an entire career is unusual these days. “But it’s not unusual at Cox,” Campbell said. “I know many Cox employees who’ve spent 20, 30, 40 years at Cox.” She credits this phenomenon to the company’s culture.

“It started with founder Gov. James Cox, whose philosophy was to treat employees well and with respect. At Cox we believe that focusing on employee engagement creates happy and productive employees, who then go on to serve our customers well. This approach is in our DNA.”

Campbell’s career ascent was comprised of a series of moves — six in 10 years. “At the time, it was considered a requirement to have field GM experience in order to advance, she said. “Looking back, I’m not sure all the moves were necessary, but I learned a lot from each one, so I have no regrets.”

Campbell also credits her success to a network of supportive mentors including Pat Esser, John Dyer and Claus Kroeger, who gave advice and provided opportunities. As a result, Campbell is passionate about promoting the careers of others, especially women, minorities and those in the LGBTQ community. “As you get up higher in the ranks, I feel it’s important to reach down that ladder and pull people up with you.”

Campbell’s leadership philosophy is all about surrounding herself with really smart people and giving them the opportunity to do the things they love. “For me, the best solutions come from brainstorming with my team. If we’re talking legacy, I’d like to think that cultivating exceptional talent at Cox would be mine.”

‘The Sopranos’
Television drama series,
HBO David Chase, creator

For 20 years, The Cable Hall of Fame has celebrated the contributions of more than 120 cable-industry innovators, but before this year, it has never recognized a television series. This year, HBO’s The Sopranos and its creator, David Chase, are honored as a show that more than revolutionized the cable scripted drama, but changed the way which such series are both created and watched.

Many people have written about the series, but none more prolifically than TV critic Alan Sepinwall, whose books The Revolution Was Televised and TV (The Book), co-written with Matt Zoller Seitz, dedicate considerable ink to The Sopranos. In an interview with The Cable Center, Sepinwall said, “The Sopranos was the Big Bang of the cable drama explosion that led to TV’s golden age.

“Before The Sopranos, cable television didn’t get any respect. Along comes The Sopranos, which inspires other cable networks — FX, Showtime, AMC — to introduce exceptional original programming, and flips the paradigm on its head so that cable is no longer a sideshow but the main attraction.”

The Sopranos , which centered around New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and his family and associates, flaunted television convention in previously unthinkable ways. There was no hero, and in fact, few truly likable characters. Nevertheless, the characters’ depth, nuance and preoccupation with everyday problems — often with grim humor — made them relatable, and had viewers rooting for a sociopathic antihero.

“Chase worked on some of the best shows ever made [his prior credits included The Rockford Files and Northern Exposure], but those were never enough for him. He really wanted to make movies,” Sepinwall said. “He assumed the pilot would be turned down and he would turn it into a movie. When it was picked up, he was insistent on pushing the limits and creating the show on his own terms.”

Many in the industry believe the post-Sopranos wave of antihero-driven series such as Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Walking Dead, The Americans and more, would not have been possible before Chase changed the rules.

Moreover, Chase kept changing the rules up to the series’s last second — with a finale that refused to tie everything into a neat bow. Ten years later, fans are still talking about the mid-scene, mid-song cut to black.

Sepinwall, who secured the sole post-finale interview, got few answers from Chase. “When it cut to black, I laughed out loud. The ending was so David — defiantly anti-climactic. The one thing he said to me was ‘It’s all there.’ You can make of that what you will.”

What we make of it is that since The Sopranos, television has never been the same.

Michael T. Fries
CEO, Liberty Global

As Michael (Mike) Fries tells it, “We started this company with $20 million and a good idea. People outside of the U.S. wanted CNN and MTV and nobody was bringing it to them.”

Nearly three decades later, Liberty Global has become the largest international TV and broadband company in the world, with operations in 30 countries, 40,000 employees and 75 million video, broadband, voice and mobile subscribers.

Fries was employee number five at what became UnitedGlobalCom and ran business development, then Asia-Pacific operations, through most of the ’90s. He returned to Denver as president and chief operating officer just before the dotcom bubble burst, leading the company through several transactions with longtime investor Liberty Media, resulting in the formation of Liberty Global in 2005 with Fries as CEO.

Liberty Global has played an integral role in globalizing the cable industry, something Fries said “is important now more than ever, when you look at our competitors.” By bringing content to international markets, launching DOCSIS around the world and collaborating with the Reference Design Kit (RDK) consortium on advanced video, the U.S. cable industry finally has a chance at global scale, thanks to Fries and Liberty Global.

It was Fries and Liberty Global that coined the term “triple play” in an annual report nearly 20 years ago. Since then, they’ve led the industry on broadband speeds and adding mobile to that product bundle.

Fries has only worked for two people, UGC founder Gene Schneider and Liberty Media founder John Malone, and he has high praise for both. “Gene Schneider was one of the original cable pioneers — tough as nails but a true gentleman. I learned a lot from him.” As for Malone, Fries said: “No one sees all the moving pieces like John Malone. He’s really a scientist masquerading as a media mogul.”

Giving back is important to Fries. As lead vocalist of a rock cover band comprised of CEOs, he has found an enjoyable way to help raise millions for charitable organizations in the Denver area. “It’s all about having a good time, for a good cause.” Fries also chairs Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art and was an early investor in the city’s charter school programs.

Fries is extremely proud to be part of the cable industry and he makes sure his international team understands their role in this legacy. “I remind them that we may have been pioneers outside the U.S., but we stand on the shoulders of giants’ right here in America.”

Ken Lowe
Chairman, President and CEO, Scripps Networks Interactive

Ken Lowe grew up in rural North Carolina where he was hooked on radio at a young age. Building a radio station in a shed on his family farm at age 10, he practiced not just the art of radio broadcasting, but also started his first entrepreneurial enterprise, bringing in a DJ (the kid who had the records) and a sales person.

Radio continued to open many doors for Lowe. He worked at a radio station through college, Harte-Hanks Broadcasting through the 1970s and eventually joined E. W. Scripps in 1980 as general manager of its radio properties. Additionally, Lowe was fascinated by architecture. “I worked for my uncle who was a contractor and almost changed my major to architecture.”

Lowe also made documentary films in college. “While I could tell stories on the radio, I loved the visual storytelling aspect,” he said. It was this confluence of interests that eventually led Lowe to connect the dots and create HGTV.

In 1994, Lowe pitched E.W. Scripps on the idea he’d been ruminating on for years — a network focused on the home, targeted toward women, whom he believed were underserved in media. Lowe secured the necessary funding after a dramatic presentation to Scripps’ newspaper-based board by correlating sections of the newspaper with corresponding networks (front page as CNN; sports page as ESPN), illustrating the lack of an analogous network for the home and garden section. Right away, HGTV attracted a loyal audience that extended beyond women, creating a robust lifestyle category which expanded to brands including Food Network, Travel Channel and DIY Network.

“Though initially focusing on women, one of the ironies is we’ve gotten more men into the kitchen and more women into home remodeling,” Lowe said. “This was not the case 20 years ago.”

The Scripps networks launched the careers of primarily unknown talent. “I was not looking for stars. I wanted people who knew their craft — where it’s their passion and they’d be doing it even if they weren’t on TV. This authenticity is one of the reasons we’ve succeeded.” Scripps Networks Interactive continues to build its brands around the world, with international revenues representing around 20% of the business.

“I felt all along that the categories we were in were not isolated to America,” Lowe said. “People care about their homes, love food and are interested in travel no matter where they’re from.”

David Zaslav
President and CEO, Discovery Communications

David Zaslav’s cable career all started with a blind cover letter. At the time, Zaslav was working as a corporate attorney, where his clients included then-fledgling cable programmer Discovery Communications.

Zaslav was quickly smitten with the business: “Seeing John Hendricks’s vision for Discovery and the future of cable was a huge moment for me,” he recalls. So, when a Multichannel News story with the headline “NBC Wants to Get Into Cable” hit the press, Zaslav didn’t waste time, sending a blind cover letter to legendary NBC boss Bob Wright.

“I told Wright, if you are serious about launching CNBC and your cable business, I’m all in,” Zaslav recalled. “I joined NBC and never looked back.”

As one of the first hires at NBC cable, Zaslav built a suite of networks including CNBC from the ground up, rising in the ranks to lead the business over the course of two decades. Then came another call from Discovery — this time to become its CEO. Joining in 2007, Zaslav quickly moved to boost Discovery’s performance, paving the path for its IPO one year later and expanding globally with new channels and brands.

Under Zaslav’s watch, Discovery launched some of its most successful and fastest-growing networks, including Investigation Discovery, Velocity and OWN, a joint venture with Oprah Winfrey. Zaslav also led Discovery’s acquisition of Eurosport and rights to the Olympics, which will air on Eurosport and its digital properties for the next decade beginning with the 2018 Winter Games.

Today, much of Zaslav’s focus is on reaching Discovery’s more than 3 billion global viewers at a time when technology is changing how they consume content. “Reaching every person on every screen and platform is a top priority for us,” Zaslav said. To do so, Discovery is fast expanding how its fans stay connected to its content, from TV everywhere to virtual reality, shortform video and partnerships with leading streaming and SVOD services.

After three decades in the business, Zaslav is also finding ways to give back, using Discovery’s brands to raise awareness and take action against wildlife extinction and other environmental issues. In 2016, Zaslav spearheaded the launch of “Project C.A.T.: Conserving Acres for Tigers,” a historic partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to restore the wild tiger population through protected sites.

“For more than 30 years, Discovery has documented the natural world and its wonders across our channels,” Zaslav said. This is just one way we can give something back.”

Frank M. Drendel
Bresnan Ethics in Business Award Recipient

Frank M. Drendel is chairman of the board and founder of CommScope. He served as its CEO from its founding in Hickory, N.C., in 1976 until its acquisition by The Carlyle Group in January 2011, which took the company private.

He has served as chairman since 1997, when CommScope was spun off from General Instrument as independent, publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Drendel’s entrepreneurial drive and business vision led to his acquiring a struggling cable product line called Comm/Scope from his then-employer, Superior Continental, and launching a standalone company in 1976. This same drive and vision has guided CommScope for nearly four decades — under Drendel’s leadership, CommScope has grown into a multibillion dollar global leader in infrastructure solutions for communications networks, with a who’s who roster of customers that spans the globe.

Through organic growth and the acquisitions of Avaya Connectivity Solutions in 2004, Andrew Corp. in 2007 and TE Broadband Network Solutions in 2015, CommScope established leadership positions in key markets — wireless, business enterprise, telecom and cable television/ residential broadband — that continue today.

While at CommScope, Drendel also served as a director of GI Delaware, a subsidiary of General Instrument, and its predecessors from 1987 to 1992, a director of General Instrument from 1992 until 1997, and a director of NextLevel Systems from 1997 until January 2000. Prior to his founding of the company, Drendel held various positions within the Comm/Scope division of Superior Continental from 1971 to 1976.

Drendel is a director of the NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, and the SCTE Executive Council. Drendel previously served as a director of Sprint Nextel Corporation from 2005 to 2008 and as a director of Nextel Communications from 1997 to 2005. He also served on the board of directors for Tyco International, The Cable Center and C-SPAN.

An active member of several National Cable & Telecommunications Association committees, Drendel has been a recipient of various NCTA awards, including the Challenger Award, Associates Award and the President’s Award. He has also received several honors for his contributions to the industry, including:
● Induction into the Cable Hall of Fame in 2002.
● An Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development in 1985 for his and M/A-Com’s contribution to anti-pirating satellite TV encryption and scrambling technology.
● The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian award given by the State of North Carolina, in 1999.
● The 2013 North Carolina Technology Association Outstanding Achievement Award.

The 5G race is on.

Operators around the world are embarking on prestandard trials of 5G, an emerging, next-generation wireless technology that promises to deliver a jaw-dropping array of futuristic advances in communications: multi-Gigabit broadband speeds, innovative mobile services, the Internet of Things and such revolutionary applications as self-driving cars.

With its ability to tap into wide swaths of spectrum, 5G will deliver wireline-like multi-Gigabit speeds that could competitively upend the already shifting market of fiber- and cable-delivered broadband services. (See Translation Please.)

Though real-world service speeds are to be determined — providers are still working out the kinks — some early trials have shown the potential to deliver speeds of more than 30 Gigabits per second (on the extreme end), according to a survey of market activity from test and measurement firm Viavi.

That’s 30 times faster than the current gold standard of 1 Gbps delivered to residential customers by today’s all-fiber networks of ISPs such as Google Fiber, and by cable operators that have upgraded to DOCSIS 3.1. According to a recent Comcast estimate, a 1-Gbps connection would allow a consumer to download a 600-Megabyte TV episode in four seconds. Using that same estimate, a 30-Gbps link would allow a user to download multiple seasons of a TV series in that same short span.

RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES
For cable operators, 5G will be friend and foe. Though it could pave the way for new competitive entrants, the technology’s wireline backhaul requirements represent a potentially lucrative business-services opportunity for MSOs. 5G is also expected to play a role as cable operators pursue and expand their own mobile and wireless strategies.

The delivery date for full 5G is widely debated, but the current consensus expectation is that the technology will be ready for market-wide launches by 2020. Phase I of the standard should be completed by mid-2018, while phase II, which will add some incremental capability, is expected by the fourth quarter of 2019, with 5G-enabled smartphones anticipated to hit the market by late 2019.

“Between 2019 and 2022, we’ll see that sharp, aggressive launch of 5G,” Glenn Laxdal, head of network products for Ericsson North America, said.

However, the initial impact of the new 5G infrastructure will be felt much sooner, as prestandard and precommercial implementations enter the fray. Imagine fast, fixed wireless access services delivered to the home that are easier to execute, in comparison to 5G’s trickier mobile and IoT aspects.

Verizon Communications is hitting on that fixed access idea early, with plans to launch 5G precommercial Gigabit broadband trials in 11 U.S. markets by mid-2017. Those trials, which will involve “several hundred cell sites that cover several thousand customer locations,” will test how the technology performs in various topologies in areas including Ann Arbor, Mich.; Atlanta, Bernardsville, N.J.; Brockton, Mass.; Dallas; Denver; Houston; Miami; Sacramento, Calif.; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.

Given its focus on Gigabit-class speeds, 5G will also need gobs of spectrum. One great place to look for that is in the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands. But there are some drawbacks, as mmWave requires smaller cell sizes than 4G and more of them in order to reach the Gigabit-class speeds and coverage 5G promises. Those mmWave signals are easily blocked by trees and buildings, so early 5G fixed wireless deployments will require good line of sight.

The good news for service providers is that 5G will work with both licensed spectrum, like what’s being set aside in the 28 GHz band and 37-39 GHz bands, but will also operate in unlicensed bands, like those available in lofty regions of 64-72 GHz.

Another area to look is the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band that is set for release. Laxdal said the use of beam-forming and beam-tracking with 5G, which points “beamlets” directly at a user’s smartphone, aims to ensure that such traffic does not interfere with WiFi traffic also operating in that band.

Jaime Fink, chief technology officer and cofounder of Mimosa Networks, said his company, which provides fixed wireless systems for thousands of ISPs, has experimented in those higher bands and has found that “perfect line of sight” is indeed required.

“I’m skeptical of it being a non-line-of-sight opportunity,” he said, noting that mmWave could work for very short range urban small cells and be useful for obtaining excess capacity that can expand and enrich the mobile network. Likewise, he said, mmWave could work across short-ranges on building rooftops.

And though 5G lab trials show promise in terms of supporting high speeds, “What is hard is delivering it en masse into neighborhoods … and that’s where it gets hazy,” Fink said.

Fink and others believe mmWave will need to be paired with services delivered in the sub-6 GHz bands that work better where foliage is present and in suburban markets.

Charles Cheevers, chief technology officer, consumer premises equipment at Arris, agreed that 5G will likely need to support a “dual-PHY” network architecture that taps mmWave with a fallback to sub-6GHz spectrum that doesn’t need direct line of sight.

AT&T will put some of those technical challenges to the test. It’s working with Nokia on a 5G fixed-wireless lab test that is streaming subscription over-the-top service DirecTV Now over a 29-GHz system using the vendor’s commercially available AirScale radio access platform.

AT&T, which is conducting the trial at its Middletown, N.J., facility, has said 39 GHz and the 28 GHz mmWave bands are “particularly attractive,” given the large amounts of bandwidth available there.

That idea falls in line with what some analysts expect. Strategy Analytics, for example, has said video is an “anchor” use case for 5G, arguing it could become a platform that could rival pay TV services delivered via cable, satellite and telco IPTV networks.

Even though 5G fixed wireless is an option being pursued by carriers like Verizon, the economics might not add up for other market entrants.

“It’s a tough proposition,” Cheevers said, noting that a newcomer would have to undercut the current provider in the market while also facing higher deployment costs.

Another challenge is the eye test, as any 5G fixed wireless setup will likely require an outdoor mount.

“The aesthetics are a problem, too, in order to win business from existing wired providers,” Cheevers said. “I think the cable industry is quite comfortable with the customers they currently have because of that dynamic.”

CABLE’S 5G OPPORTUNITY
While the competitive threat posed by fixed 5G is questionable, 5G’s need for small cells that must also be connected to rich fiber networks to backhaul all of that traffic is “where the cable operators come in,” Laxdal said.

Cable’s widespread broadband networks are also among the driving reason behind rumors that Verizon is interested in buying Charter Communications.

However, cable operators are also positioned to take advantage of other 5G use cases, including fixed wireless access in residential and business service areas where MSO wired networks have yet to reach.

Some cable providers could also take advantage of the future mobile use cases for 5G, as MSOs such as Comcast and Charter trigger and develop services fueled by mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deals with carriers such as Verizon.

Those MSOs, which have mobile products in the works, have likewise started to show their 5G hands.

Charter, for example, is already conducting 5G tests, following up on its application for experimental licenses for the pilots from the Federal Communications Commission, company CEO Tom Rutledge said on the company’s earnings call in January.

“We intend to use these field trials as learning opportunities to provide us with better insight into the capabilities of our wireline network when attaching radios with high frequency licensed and unlicensed spectrum,” he said, noting that he views 5G as a capacity-enhancing play more so than a mobile service play.

Comcast, which plans to launch a mobile product by midyear, is also eager to explore the 5G waters, at least with respect to power and backhaul that can be supported by the MSO’s roughly 650,000 miles of plant.

“I think that 5G is an exciting evolution in the business,” Neil Smit, president and CEO of Comcast Cable, said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in January. “We’re doing some testing right now. We think that it’s going need economical space, power and backhaul … We think that we’re well-positioned to participate in the 5G rollout, no matter how it happens, as a result of having all those assets in place already.”

Cheevers said the multiple-dwelling unit (MDU) market is one that’s wellsuited to 5G. Apartments and condominiums represent a simpler option that would let operators take advantage of facilities with good line of sight and buildings with access to fiber.

“If I was a cable operator, I’d look at the MDU acquisition [opportunity],” Cheevers said.

CableLabs, the cable industry’s R&D organization, has been heavily engaged with wireless, including work with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and as a board member of the MulteFire Alliance, which is eying 5G services in unlicensed bands.

“We are following 5G very actively … It’s on our radar,” Belal Hamzeh, vice president of wireless technologies at CableLabs, said, noting that nearly half of the organization’s global members are also mobile operators.

5G operators will need a pervasive infrastructure power and backhaul, which “aligns well with the cable infrastructure,” he said. “Having the cable industry involved in 5G should not be a surprise to anybody.”

But not all cable operators are sold on the promise of 5G. For one, Liberty Global, which operates both fixed and mobile service in Europe and other regions, is wary the returns won’t justify the capital requirements.

CAPEX CONCERNS
“We worry about that leap,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said last week at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain.

“We think 5G is actually at a crossroads,” he said, noting that capital requirements should be part of a 5G discussion that has centered on collaboration and cooperation. “It’s not predestined.”

Fries said he fears that such an investment might not be forthcoming, particularly in Europe, if the environment in which Liberty Global and others operate doesn’t become healthier, and if the continent’s mobile market doesn’t undergo a much-needed wave of consolidation.

“One hundred twenty operators vying for declining revenues is a difficult place to be in,” Fries said. By comparison, he said, the U.S. “has it right in many respects” when it comes to the number of mobile competitors vying for share.

“It’s going to be a difficult act here in Europe to see this 5G vision come to fruition if we don’t create a more stable competitive environment,” Fries said. “There are too many mobile operators in Europe today. It’s very difficult to see a return with that much competition.”

Amid that uncertainty, top cable technology suppliers are keying on this wireless shift and are adjusting accordingly.

Casa Systems, a vendor that has traditionally focused on products for hybrid fiber coaxial networks, has been expanding into mobile and wireless in recent years to match the pursuits of its MSO partners and as a way for the vendor to enter new markets. Of recent note, it added 5G-focused small cell products and management products to its portfolio.

Casa’s mobile-facing products are getting “considerable momentum” and now counts about 25 “customer engagements,” according to Andrew Gibbs, the company’s vice president of product management.

MSOs are in a great position to “be the dominant service providers going forward as 5G takes shape,” he said, noting that have the wired infrastructure to support and invest in small cell systems that serve schools, enterprises, hospitality venues and, later, smart cities.

Arris, another top MSO supplier that counts Comcast and Charter as top customers, is going deeper into wireless and mobile through a proposed $800 million acquisition that includes Brocade Communications’s Ruckus Wireless unit.

Arris CEO Bruce McClelland said the deal represents a critical, defining moment in the company’s history, as many of its MSO customers pivot into wireless and mobile services.

“If I’m right, I think we’ll look back at this five years from now and say, ‘Gosh, that was a great move,’ ” McClelland said. “It could take a variety of different forms, but I think at the end of the day they’re all going to be wireless operators.”

5G may enter the picture at Arris down the road, but early on McClelland expects the pending deal to initially focus on augmenting capacity for standard 4G LTE mobile applications.


SIDEBAR > 5G: Five Things to Know
The initial use case for “precommercial” 5G products will be Gigabit-class, fixed wireless broadband access speeds to the home.

The move to full 5G technology and more advanced use cases, such as mobility, support for the Internet of Things and low-latency apps like self-driving cars, aren’t expected to emerge on a widespread commercial basis until 2020.

5G is not the sole domain of carriers with licensed spectrum. It will operate in both licensed and unlicensed spectrum.

5G will rely partly on spectrum in the millimeter wave bands, which require short distances to deliver high speeds and good line-of-sight connections. Given that scenario, 5G operators will likely want to also employ spectrum in the bands below 6 GHz as a fallback.

5G is a wireless technology, but underpinning it with solid, wired backhaul networks will be critical. That’s a major opportunity for cable operators with massive fiber-rich networks, and could drive more M&A activity as mobile carriers seek important backhaul options.

Pouring a bit of cold water on the hype around 5G, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries questioned whether there’s a big enough of a financial return available to justify the amount of capital that will be required for a major shift to the emerging, next-gen wireless/mobile platform.

“We worry about that leap,” Fries said this week at the Mobile World Congress confab in Barcelona, Spain, noting that Liberty Global is in the mobile game now in nine countries in one way or another.

“We think 5G is actually at a crossroads,” he said, noting that capital requirements should be part of a 5G discussion that has centered on collaboration and cooperation. “It’s not pre-destined,” he said of 5G.

5G, Fries pointed out, will require a massive investment and involves more than “spectrum and chips.”

He fears that such an investment might not be forthcoming, particularly in Europe, if the environment in which Liberty Global and others operate doesn’t become healthier and if the mobile market there does not go through a wave of much needed consolidation.

 “120 operators vying for declining revenues is a difficult place to be in,” he said, noting that a consolidated fixed broadband market does present competition and benefits to the providers and consumers.

The U.S., he said, “has it right in many respects” pertaining to mobile and the number of competitive players.

“It’s going to be a difficult act here in Europe to see this 5G vision come to fruition if we don’t create a more stable competitive environment,” Fries said.

 Though 85% of Liberty Global’s revenues come from fixed broadband and video services, “we are rapidly evolving into a fixed and mobile converged company,” he said. “We’re committed to that.”

However, “if you want investment in 5G, there has to be an opportunity to get a return,” Fries said. “Or else it’s going to be spotty and high profile and not mass scale…There are too many mobile operators in Europe today. it’s very difficult to see a return with that much competition.”

Boiled down, he said the 2020 target being placed on full 5G “is too aggressive,” holding that there’s a lot more room for 4G/LTE growth. “I think it will be an evolution, not a revolution.”

Fries also discussed Liberty Global’s position on owning and controlling the content it makes available through its platforms.

RELATED: AT&T Entertainment Chief Touts Content

Without a Disney or a Time Warner, Europe is more fragmented with respect to content, but that has not stopped Liberty Global from taking a more targeted approach by acquiring sports rights in Holland and Switzerland and investing in production companies. Expect more of that.

“I think the cat’s out of the bag,” he said. “It won’t be long before companies like ours and others are integrating vertically, owning and controlling more content.”

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries used the company’s  third quarter earnings call to take the wraps off “Liberty 3.0,” a new initiative that aims to make the company more efficient and “super charge” its growth rate.

“This is a massive transformation program designed to streamline our operating model, accelerate our growth and drive even greater efficiency through the business,” Fries said. “It's ambitious, it's exciting, and it's 100% accretive to what's already a very strong growth business.”

But Fries emphasized that the program “is not just a cost-cutting exercise,” as it will tackle everything from revenue growth, customer engagement and churn.

Fries sees growth coming from a greater focus on mobile, building broadband market share and pursuing newbuild opportunities.

“At the same time, we are targeting a total cost efficiency program of about €1 billion from across the organization over the next few years, including obvious areas like procurement, supply chain and IT,” he said.

Fries also spent some time addressing the cord-cutting trend, which appears to be growing at a slower rate as MSOs show improved video subscriber performance, meaning that they are losing video subs at a reduced rate.

“In our world, connectivity to customer households is a golden ticket,” Fries said, but noted that Liberty Global’s next-gen TV platforms are now offered in eight countries across 42 million homes passed, which is more than 80% of its total footprint.

Fries also agreed with what Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said at this week’s New York Times DealBook conference-- that Netflix has “always been most scared of TV Everywhere as the fundamental threat,” if cable can get its act together on it.

“While Halloween was a week ago and I think Reed's got a good reason to be scared in our markets,” Fries said, pointing out that 1.8 million Liberty Global subs use its TVE services today and the Horizon Go app has been downloaded 1 million times since a rebranding in April. “I think Reed was right, so stay tuned.”

Fries is also confident that current DOCSIS technology and the new DOCSIS 3.1 platform will keep it well postioned against the broadband competition, even as some telcos, including BT, pursue G.fast, an emerging standard that will bring gigabit capacitlies to DSL.

He said there’s little to no fiber-to-the-home completion in most of Liberty Global’s consumer markets and that he doesn’t expect telcos to build out a bunch of it.

As for G.fast, Fries believes it will “take a large amount of money and capacity and time to develop.”

But neither G.fast or FTTP puts Liberty Global at a “disadvantage” because it’s got an economically attractive path to reach multi-gigabit capabilities

“A year ago, I would have said 80 to 100-meg…is our sweet spot. Today, it's 150 to 200-meg,” he said. “The sweet spot is growing every year and that's really a good problem to have.” 

Liberty Global said overall subscriber growth was back on track as it added 320,000 total revenue generating units, including 296,000 in Europe, across its service categories in the third quarter of 2015, but  shed 64,000 video subs in the period.

At the end of the quarter, Liberty Global Group (Europe) had 53.2 million RGUs across its footprint of 48.8 million homes passed in the region, comprised of 22.8 million video subs, 16.6 million high-speed Internet customers, and 13.8 million phone subs. With Liberty’s Latin America and Caribbean (LiLAC) Group, which operates in Chile and Puerto Rico, factored in, the company ended Q3 with  56.65 million total RGUs, 24.08 million video subs, 17.87 million high-speed Internet subs, and 14.69 million phone subs.

Driven in part by results at Ziggo, the cable unit  based in the Netherlands, Liberty Global said Q3 was its strongest quarter ever for Horizon TV, its primary next-gen video platform. Its total next-gen TV base grew by 339,000, coming way of Horizon TV (248,000 adds) and TiVo (91,000 adds).  Liberty Global ended the quarter with 4.3 million video subs in the next-gen category.

With about 20% of its cable video base on next-gen platforms, “we see ample up-sell potential ahead of us,” the company said.

Still, that next-gen momentum was not enough to offset overall video losses of 64,000 in Q3, the lowest quarterly net loss for video in 2015, but not better than the 49,000 video subs lost in the year-ago quarter.

"Subscriber growth is back on track with 320,000 RGU additions in the third quarter, including 220,000 new broadband subscribers,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said. “This acceleration in volume growth was fueled by our operations in Germany and the U.K. Continued traction of our cutting-edge Horizon TV platform resulted in a record quarter of almost 250,000 new subscriptions. The execution of our aggressive technology roadmap continues delivering innovative products like our recently launched Replay TV functionality and next-generation WiFi gateway.”

Overall sales rose 2.2%, to $4.6 billion year-over year, beating the $4.47 billion expected by analysts, according to Bloomberg.  Those revenues included $4.3 billion from Liberty Global Group (Europe) and $309 million from LiLAC. 

Liberty Global is scheduled to discuss the Q3 results in more detail Friday morning. 

A concentration on new cutting-edge cable technologies, an increased focus on education and the debut of several cable new exhibitors helped drive attendance at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers 2014 Cable-Tec Expo in Denver.

The annual technology fest, held from Sept.22-25, attracted about 9,100 attendees, the SCTE said in a statement. While that was below the 9,800 attendees to the 2013 gathering in Atlanta, a 22% increase in new exhibitors helped drive total booth takers to 376 and a pre-conference symposium on DOCSIS 3.1 and wireless technologies drew more than 500 attendees for the first time. Both the exhibitor and attendance totals represent increases over those registered in 2009, when Denver last played host to the event.

This year’s get-together also had a new focus on learning and education – the conference agenda included more than 100 hours of workshops and symposiums on three distinct tracks: Next-Generation Customer Experience; Next-Generation Video; and Next-Generation Networks.  A standing-room only crowd heard Comcast executive vice president and chief network officer John Schanz keynote the Energy 2020 session that unveiled cable’s plan to reduce energy consumption and assure energy availability by the end of the decade. The event also saw strong attendance at back-to-back sessions on DevOps, Agile Software Development and RDK.

Cable executives provided insights at the general sessions into how the industry is adapting to continue to improve the customer experience and maintain its competitive edge worldwide, and how engineering and operations professional can align their careers.  The sessions included opening remarks by Tony Werner, executive vice president and CTO of Comcast Cable Communications and the 2014 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo Program Chair; a keynote presentation by Rob Lloyd, president, development and sales for Cisco Systems, Inc.; a panel on cloud technologies; a Werner conversation with Mike Fries, president and CEO of Liberty Global; and views on career growth from Yvette Kanouff, senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider Video Software and Solutions Group, Cisco, and Mike LaJoie, executive vice president and CTO and chief network operations officer for Time Warner Cable.

“Despite unavoidable proximity to IBC and other industry events, the cable engineering community turned out in force to learn more about harnessing the new technologies that increase and ensure service availability,” said SCTE president and CEO Mark Dzuban in a statement.  “We’re grateful for the leadership of Tony Werner; the insights of Mike Fries, Rob Lloyd and our other speakers; the support of CableLabs at our DOCSIS 3.1 and Wireless symposium; and the technical resources of Comcast’s Denver Central operations. All of them—and many others—contributed to making SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2014 the most successful educational event in our history.”

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2015 will be conducted Tuesday through Friday, Oct. 13-16 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Liberty Global executive vice president and CTO Balan Nair will serve as Program Committee chairman for the 2015 event.

DENVER -- SCTE Cable-Tec Expo -- Liberty Global faces different competitive pressures in Europe and other parts of the world than some of its U.S. MSO peers, but the need to achieve scale across the board is critical for the entire cable industry, Mike Fries, Liberty Global’s president and CEO, said here during Wednesday’s opening general session.

The need for scale has “never been more important than right now, and will only become more important,” Fries said during a keynote discussion with Tony Werner, Comcast Cable’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, and the program chairman for this year’s show.

One area where Liberty Global and other MSOs can achieve scale is at the set-top box, and particularly around the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the preintegrated software stack for IP-capable devices that’s being managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global.

“The RDK is a DOCSIS moment, in our view,” Fries said, referencing the CableLabs-driven DOCSIS specs that has helped cable to achieve massive scale on the broadband end of the business. Liberty Global, by the way, is basing the next-generation of its Horizon video platform on the RDK.

“Horizon, for us, is a game-changer,” he said. On the set-top end, Liberty Global, Fries said, launched an “e-auction” on Wednesday that aims to produce devices that are cheaper and lighter than today’s products and to take advantage of the migration of services to the proverbial cloud.

Fries said scale is also key as cable faces off with “hyper-giants” like Google and Netflix, which is aggressively expanding its subscription video streaming services across many regions of Europe.

Fries also reiterated his stance that the rise of Netflix has prodded the cable industry to move faster and embrace over-the-top video services.

“Netflix taught us a great lesson,” Fries said, noting that cable already had the connectivity and the content. “All we were missing was the app…the user experience.”

To match up, Liberty Global has launched its own over-the-top subscription video service, called My Prime. “We might launch a YouTube channel,” Fries said.

Expanded coverage of Fries' keynote, including his sizing up of the competitive landscape and Liberty Global's wireless and mobile strategies, will be featured in Thursday's Multichannel News SCTE Cable-Tec Expo show daily. For more Expo news and announcements, please visit our show micro-site.