INDIANAPOLIS — Public speaking can be anything but easy.

Five minutes into his keynote presentation onstage at The Independent Show, industry consultant and futurist Shelly Palmer (pictured) made the best of a tough spot.

After the fog for a laser show had barely dissipated, jackhammers started pounding away on the roof, to the dismay of the speaker. Then, after a few minutes, fire alarm sirens and strobe lights started going off.

Then a Voice of God came to life on the PA system and tried to reassure Palmer that the fire alarm was being checked out, and it was probably a false alarm.

And in the words of the late Hunter S. Thompson, when the going gets rough, the weird turn pro.

Palmer whipped out his phone: “I think it’s time for Facebook Live. This is one of those moments….

“This is really funny, I mean, you know, in a weird, completely ‘are you kidding me?’ kind of way,” he continued. “In a minute, they’re re going to tell me if I can finish my speech or what’s behind door No. 2? Run like hell for the exit!”

Once on Facebook Live and streaming, he looked into his phone and began: “Hi, the strobes are going here. I’m onstage at NCTC. Here’s everybody. Notice the strobes … We’re live on Facebook right now. Wave everybody.”

After a bit more of that inspired improv, Palmer said goodbye to the assembled online masses. The sirens stopped, and he resumed his talk.

INDIANAPOLIS — With the rest of the cable industry focused on the possibility of Scripps Networks combining with either Discovery Communications or Viacom, Sanford Bernstein media analyst Todd Juenger warned that one of the catalysts for a deal — preserving double-digit affiliate fee increases — won’t last too much longer for any cable programmer.

Update: Discovery to Buy Scripps Networks for $14.6 billion

Gross margins on video programming for the average cable operator are about $21 per subscriber per month, after affiliate fees and customer expenses, Juenger noted on a panel at The Independent Show here. Juenger estimated that by 2018, that gross margin would shrink to $15 per month per subscriber.

“If nothing else changes, how long is it until that $20 per subscriber per month goes to zero?” Juenger asked. “The answer is 2023.” In order to maintain profit margins, either affiliate-fee growth must slow down or networks have to be dropped, he added.

Juenger had an answer for that, too. Of the 10 network groups that control the bulk of programming and affiliate fees, he said distributors have several choices.

Weighing Net Losses
The greatest financial impact, he said, would come from dropping The Walt Disney Co.’s networks — including broadcaster ABC and ESPN, pay TV’s priciest network — as Disney charges the highest affiliate fees at $11.49 per sub, per month. But it could also prompt the greatest number of subscribers to switch providers: 43%, by Juenger’s estimate.

Dropping Discovery Communications, Scripps Networks, AMC Networks and CBS would have the smallest subscriber impact — under 10% for each network group — but also the least financial impact. All four networks combined have total fees of less than $4 per subscriber per month.

That leaves Viacom, which has affiliate fees of about $3.50 per subscriber per month and had already been dropped by Cable One, Suddenlink Communications (later restored after its purchase by Altice USA) and several smaller cable operators. Those distributors have lost video customers at a higher than average rate, at least partly attributable to shedding the Viacom channels. Cable One has shed about 20% of its video base in the past two years, compared to 2% to 3% for the rest of the industry. But Cable One was willing to sacrifice what it believed to be less profitable customers and has focused on broadband for years.

For Juenger, it’s a simple case of economics. Ultimately, it comes down to how many subscribers a distributor is willing to lose. According to Juenger’s calculations, dropping Viacom would result in losing about 15% of a distributor’s video base.

“If you can stand to lose 15% of your subscribers, you should drop Viacom,” Juenger said, adding that he wasn’t singling out the company because of some personal vendetta. “If you drop Disney, you’ll have a tougher time maintaining subscribers.

“Everybody has something to break,” he added. “This is why the networks cannot continue to harvest these big price increases. It’s no longer financially viable to carry it.”

But it is just that fear of eroding affiliate-fee growth that is pushing some networks together. Scripps Networks, which has about eight channels including HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel and CMT, is in merger talks with Discovery Communications. That’s after Viacom dropped out of the running for Scripps, after reportedly readying an offer of $10.6 billion in cash.

The Discovery bid is expected to top $90 per share for Scripps, a 34% premium to its close on July 18, when merger talk first surfaced.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Proposed Discovery-Scripps Merger

Fighting Scale With Scale
Merger proponents say smaller players need scale economics and added carriage for negotiating leverage. That’s because distributors have also been very active on the M&A front to give them more scale and leverage against programmers.

With big deals like Charter Communications-Time Warner Cable completed, and AT&T’s $108.7 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc. winding through the federal approval process, several other smaller deals have popped up in the past few months. TPG Capital has been particularly aggressive in the space — it snapped up RCN and Grande Communications last year for $2.25 billion, and in May agreed to purchase Wave Broadband for $2.36 billion. Cogeco Cable, the Canadian parent of Atlantic Broadband, agreed to buy Harron Communications’ MetroCast operations for $1.4 billion.

For smaller operators, the main catalyst for deals is to expand fiber and broadband networks. For many, video is becoming a second-class offering — small operators CableOne and Suddenlink Communications were the first to drop a major programmer (Viacom) in 2014.

According to a panel session at last week’s Independent Show, more deals are expected to come.

“Markets are strong across the board. We’re seeing that in the checks the private equity guys are writing,” said CoBank senior vice president Ted Koerner at a TIS session moderated by DH Capital co-founder and chairman Joe Duggan.

Sony Interactive Entertainment America said it has notched a deal to offer PlayStation Vue, its OTT TV service, to customers of the 850-plus cable operators and other service providers that are members of the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC).  

RELATED: Complete Coverage of TIS17

The agreement comes during The Independent Show, being held this week in Indianapolis, and comes on the heels of a similar deal between the NCTC and fuboTV, another virtual MVPD that competes with PS Vue and others such as DirecTV Now, Sling TV, Hulu and YouTube TV.

RELATED: TIS17: NCTC Reaches Pact With FuboTV

Those deals are forming as members of the NCTC look for new ways to offer video services to broadband-only customers and to provide an option to consumers who have cut the cord on traditional pay TV services or have never taken a pay TV service. In turn, the deals could give OTT players more exposure to consumers who are seeking those alternatives and bump up their sub totals. 

Financial terms were not announced, but they said the deal with the NCTC, whose members represent more than 9 million U.S. subs, will give those co-op members the ability to “enhance their product portfolio with a new offering to reach broadband customers with differentiated packages and enhanced user experience."

“This is a great opportunity for customers to experience PlayStation Vue’s innovative cloud-based TV streaming service through their NCTC member provider,” Dwayne Benefield, VP and head of PlayStation Vue for SIEA, said in a statement. “PlayStation Vue offers an incredible value to users, with more than 100 popular live national and local channels, a powerful user interface, and the ability to purchase channels a la carte without a bundle.”

“Our members are looking for ways to offer more video choice to their customers, and this new agreement allows them to do that,” added Rich Fickle, NCTC’s President and CEO, “NCTC understands the importance of pursuing new opportunities for the distribution of content, and we are excited to partner with such a strong brand.”

Sony launched PS Vue, initially in three markets, in March 2015, and has since expanded to feature a national offering that includes live local broadcast TV channels in certain markets as it signs more deals with affiliate groups, and next-day VOD access to their shows in others. Sony has not announced sub numbers for PS Vue.

PS Vue is currently supported on web browsers, PlayStation 4 and PS 3 consoles, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick devices, Android TV devices, iOS and Android smartphone and tablets, and is optimized for the Google Chromecast for iOS and Android.

INDIANAPOLIS – Rising pole attachment fees and delays in obtaining necessary permits from municipalities are the biggest roadblocks in building out broadband infrastructure in rural America, a panel of experts said at The Independent Show Monday (July 24).

Read More: Get complete coverage of #TIS17.

ShenTel EVP and chief operating officer Earle MacKenzie said for the small market telecom company, simply obtaining permission to string its lines on a utility pole and obtaining a reasonable rate can delay projects for months.

“It’s a different story with each pole owner,” MacKenzie said at the panel session, moderated by Kelly, Drey & Warren LLP partner Tom Cohen. One of the major issues is getting a good estimate upfront and getting detailed billing so we know what we’re paying for.”

He added that last year, ShenTel had 60 construction projects that were delayed an average of 60 days because of pole attachment issues.

While obtaining permits and getting local government approvals can be a hassle, Chattanooga mayor Andy Berke, who has overseen the construction of one of the most extensive municipal broadband networks in the country, said they are necessary.

“We really care about aesthetics,” Berke said, adding that making sure the city gets a fair price and engages with its contractors to make sure the process goes smoothly. “We don’t want 25 people digging up streets. We want to dig once.”

But he added that cities want to be fair to contractors, while keeping their priorities straight.

“Part of the challenge for us is to set up a regulatory scheme and a payment scheme that is fair to the city and constituents and to allow the economic development to put people to work,” Berke said

McKenzie added that Chattanooga can be the exception. Many municipalities, he added, have no clue what they want or how to get it. He pointed to a project in the city of Roanoke, Va., where the telco was delayed in getting the proper permits to run fiber to local schools.

“If we are serious about getting service to everyone, we need to take down the roadblocks,” MacKenzie said. “The last thing we want to do is irritate our customers. We really are in business to make money and make our customers happy. If we have to scratch a different itch in every town, it gets expensive and in some cases it’s not worth going forward.”

Berke suggested that contractors and providers make sure they take into account where local governments stand when they are proposing to build a network to ensure a smoother process.

“If you’re going to a city that doesn’t have clear rules, make sure you’re talking the language of the people running city government,” Berke said.

The Federal Communications Commission, which has in the past kept pole attachments disputes at arm’s length, opting instead to let the market find a solution, has been considering getting more involved, said FCC Wireline Competition Bureau deputy bureau chief Madeleine Findley. FCC chairman Ajit Pai created the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee earlier this year to specifically address these issues. Findley said the BDAC docket is still open and encouraged operators to offer questions and comments about issues including timelines, rates and fees, best practices and ways to encourage more efficient deployment.

“The chairman is very concerned about closing the digital divide,” Findley said, adding later that the commission is aware that there is no simple solution for the problem.

“The commission is cognizant that this is not an area where one size fits all,” she said. “There are different issues. We want to be available as a resource.”

Findley said the commission is considering whether to impose a 180-day shot clock on itself for such issues to help speed up the process.  

“This is not a once and done thing for the commission,” Findley said. “It’s going to be an iterative conversation. We want to be a participant in that conversation.”

INDIANAPOLIS – The rash of recent M&A deals in the small cable space is likely to continue, but money also will flow into the sector to build out networks and increasingly focus on in-home networking, customer service and improving the overall experience according to a panel session at The Independent Show.

The handful of top executives at small cable operators said they expect consolidation to continue especially as larger companies recognize the strength of their networks and the rising demand for fast and faster broadband speeds.

Read More: Get complete coverage of #TIS17.

Already there has been a flood of deals in the past year – private equity firm TPG’s purchase of RCN and Grande Communications last August for $2.25 billion and its May agreement to buy Wave Broadband for $2.36 billion; and Cogeco Cable’s July agreement to purchase MetroCast for $1.4 billion.

New deal currencies form recent IPOs at WideOpenWest and Altice USA also should provide fuel for more deals.

But the operators during the panel session moderated by CNBC senior analyst and commentator Ron Insana said there is also a big push to continue to improve the overall customer experience, and that means a sharper focus on in-home networking and customer education.

WOW CEO Steve Cochran, which went public in May, said he was encourage most by the fact that many of the recent deals involved small companies buying small companies.

“It’s all about knowing the customer segment you’re going after,” Cochran said, adding that he was happy that recent transactions involved many of the people that are in this room coming together.”

Knowing that customer segment involves providing faster data speeds for both residential and business customers. At EPB, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based municipal electric utility, that means providing a good product and with strong customer service.

Vice president of new products Katie Espeseth said customer service said customer service is still the biggest differentiator for small operators competing against larger, deeper pocketed competitors.

“It’s what really sets us apart,” she said.

Related: Indie Cable Operators: Small but Powerful

Espeseth sees small cable and municipal broadband operators not just as providers of less expensive, more efficient service, but as catalysts for the local economy.

“We see our role as being the sparkplug in the community,” Espeseth said. “We spur economic development; we see these type of broadband services as being a catalyst not only for residential customers but to improve businesses and provide an environment for entrepreneurs to grow and flourish.”

But Espeseth said with choices and options increasing exponentially as new methods of content delivery emerge, from streaming to over the top services and TV Everywhere, customers are getting increasingly confused.

That means that education is becoming increasingly important to help customers navigate their choices and to “steer [them] to an experience they feel they personally curated.”

Wave Broadband chief operating officer Harold Zeitz added that allowing customers to integrate their services and devices via in-home networks is the next big priority for the industry, adding that it is essential that operators educate customers in how to use the products they’re offered.

Harron Communications EVP and general counsel Ryan Pearson said in-home networking is high on his priority is, adding that it is also important for customers to be able to interact with their provider in the way they want, whether that be via e-mail, text, or social media.

Espial has introduced Elevate IPTV, a turnkey, cloud-based video platform for MVPDs that has been pre-integrated with Arris’s portfolio of video set-tops and gateways.

Read More: Get complete coverage of #TIS17.

Espial claimed that the new software-as-a-service offering enables partners to turn up new live, VOD, OTT and whole-home DVR services in as quickly as 90 days while also supporting an operator’s legacy QAM video platform and delivering an experience that can be unified across both sides.

The debut of Elevate IPTV comes about a year after Espial closed its acquisition of Arris’s Whole Home Solution platform, which originated from Arris’s $20 million acquisition of the Digeo set-top and software business from Paul Allen in 2009.

RELATED: Espial Seals Deal For Arris’s Whole Home Solution Platform

At the time, Arris and Espial also announced that they’d collaborate on integration and co-marketing activities, and were creating a reseller agreement. Arris was also named Espial’s preferred partner for gateways, though Espial is free to work with other hardware partners.

Espial introduced Elevate IPTV in tandem with The Independent Show, being held this week in Indianapolis.

 “Elevate IPTV provides an elegant solution to access the ever growing choice of video content and consumer viewing devices” Mick McCluskey, VP of product management at Espial, said in a statement. “With content providers engaging consumers directly, Elevate IPTV provides operators with a powerful platform that allows operators to compete with scale.”

“In today’s increasingly competitive environment, we're enabling operators to deliver immersive new viewing experiences that seamlessly combine advanced TV, OTT, and operator-specific services,” added Rob Folk, VP of product management at Arris. “Operators are uniquely positioned to create these next-generation services quickly and efficiently, empowered by ARRIS technology and advanced platforms like Elevate IPTV."

SES said 30 U.S. pay TV providers are using its platform to test the delivery of 4K programming to the home after adding nine cable MSOs and IPTV providers to the mix.

Read More: Get complete coverage of #TIS17.

The latest batch of trial participants includes Alliance Communications; Cincinnati Bell; Douglas County Community Network in Washington; Hotwire; Midco; Midwest Video Solutions (MVS); Oneida Telephone Exchange; Skitter TV; and South Dakota Networks (SDN), which delivers IPTV services in partnership with 19 telcos in South Dakota.

NAB 2017: Two MVPDs Roll Out 4K with SES, Vivicast

They’re on board to test out an integrated platform that offers a package of programming from content partners that include Fashion One 4K, Travelxp 4K, 4KUNIVERSE, NASA TV UHD, Insight TV, UHD1, C4K360, Funbox 4K, Nature Relaxation 4K, as well as SES’s UHD demo channel. SES is hosting the channels using a set of satellites (SES-1, SES-3, AMC-18).

RELATED: Verizon Teams with SES on Ultra HD Trial

“Momentum continues to build as SES accelerates the delivery and commercial availability of Ultra HD services throughout North America, and we expect more cable and IPTV providers to join the trio of operators who have already launched their commercial Ultra HD services using our platform,” Steve Corda, VP of business development at SES Video, said in a statement.

Other trial participants include Marquette-Adams Communications; Highlands Cable Group; EPB Fiber Optics; Verizon Communications; Frontier Communications; Buckeye Broadband;  Service Electric Cable TV; enTouch Systems; Cable America, Golden West Telecommunications; MTC Cable; Aureon; GVTC Communications; KPU Telecommunications; Shrewsbury Community Cable; and Sjoberg’s Cable TV.

SES has been delivering 4K TV at 18 Mbps using HEVC coding. In an earlier interview, Corda reasoned that that bit rate squares with cable operators, because it allows them to fit two 4K TV signals into a 6MHz-wide channel.

RELATED: SES: 18 Mbps Is the Right Rate for 4K TV (subscription required)

Most of the cable operators that in the pilot are delivering the signals over QAM transport to set-top boxes, but some are also considering deliver over DOCSIS networks using IP multicast technology.

DirecTV, Layer3 TV, Dish Network, and Comcast are among other U.S. MVPDs that have rolled out or are testing 4K services.

INDIANAPOLIS -- National Cable Television Cooperative members will be able to offer fuboTV’s broadband and over-the-top streaming TV bundle as a result of a partnership reached ahead of the co-op’s annual conference, The Independent Show, here July 23-26.

“This partnership gives our members the ability to provide added value to their broadband customers, while also providing more content options for our members, who will now have access to a turnkey OTT video bundle that includes some of the most popular sports, news and entertainment channels on TV,” said NCTC’s vice president of product management John Childress in a statement.  “There is growing demand from certain consumer groups towards live streaming video services, and we feel these partnerships help provide members options to reach these different types of consumers.”

Read More: Get complete coverage of #TIS17.

Sports-first virtual multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) fuboTV’s entry-level “Fubo Premier” bundle includes 60-plus live channels – including 34 that carry sports; 80% of the country’s regional sports networks (RSNs); and seven of the top eight broadcast networks – and can be accessed on desktop or mobile web at fubo.tv; via Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick; Android and iOS devices; Apple TV; Chromecast; Kindle Fire; and Roku.  Additionally, subscribers can access a growing video on demand (VOD) library, and at no additional cost, can use their fuboTV ID and password to log in to dozens of networks’ authenticated TV Everywhere apps and websites.

Also as part of this agreement, NCTC members will have the ability to offer extended free 30-day trials of Premier twice annually on a company-by-company basis, with fuboTV providing materials that can be used by each member’s marketing teams. Fubo Premier is currently available at an introductory price of $34.99 per month, with a seven-day free trial.

“As the only independent live streaming TV service in the space, we are looking forward to partnering with hundreds of independent providers to help them level the playing field in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” said fuboTV co-founder and CEO David Gandler in a statement.  “I’m confident that this relationship will be mutually-beneficial, and am thrilled to be making this announcement in advance of fall TV premieres and the upcoming NFL, NBA, NHL, soccer and college football seasons, and the MLB pennant race.”