San Antonio, Texas — Over the past few decades one of the worst insults you could hurl at a cable operator was that it sold nothing but a “dumb pipe,” a conduit through which vastly smarter content flowed to increasingly sophisticated hardware.

But today, as broadband has become the business of choice for large and small operators — every publicly traded cable operator has more high-speed data customers than video customers — being a dumb pipe, it seems, isn’t so bad after all.

“The trends in pay TV have been absolutely horrible,” New Street Research managing director Jonathan Chaplin said at the National Cable Television Cooperative’s Winter Educational Conference here. “We’ve seen traditional linear pay TV subscribers falling off a cliff over the course of the last few years at an accelerating rate, and we think this trend continues. We think the economics of pay TV for cable companies are marginal at best.”

Cash-Flow Benefits
He then pointed to Charter Communications and Comcast, which he estimated generate $15 and $24 per month per customer in free cash flow from video, respectively.

“When a household cuts the cord and goes broadband-only, the increase in broadband pricing more than offsets the loss in profitability from the video product,” Chaplin said.

NCTC president Rich Fickle said that while some of the co-op’s members have de-emphasized video, it will likely remain in the cable package for a while. “Video is going to be a part of the equation for a long time,” he said. “It’s an established business, customers like the fact that they’ve got a good local operator that they can trust. It’s going to erode slowly over time.”

And the more that base erodes, the more cable becomes a content conduit. According to Chaplin, that’s not such a bad thing. “There is nothing wrong with being a dumb pipe,” he said. “It’s a magnificent business if there are no other pipes and if everybody wants your pipe.”

That last part might seem like a key caveat, but cable has consistently come out on top in the ongoing broadband wars, accounting for more than 100% of high-speed data customer additions for more than a decade. It seems that barring some unforeseeable calamity — like widespread, reliable and affordable 5G wireless service from telcos — cable will indeed remain the broadband pipe of choice.

Preserving that leadership role will be crucial because Chaplin doesn’t see a lot of video growth for cable operators down the road. “The entire future value of cable is in broadband — 80% of EBITDA, 90% of the enterprise value of these companies over the next few years.”

Some operators have already taken the bold move to de-emphasize video all together. Cable One did it a few years ago, as broadband revenue finally exceeded video revenue for the first time in 2016 ($344.2 million vs. $294.8 million for video). And while the big MSOs still reap a big chunk of revenue from video, the gap is closing. Comcast, the largest cable operator in the country, reported video revenue of $21.5 billion in 2015 and broadband revenue of $12.5 billion. Last year that gap narrowed to $23.1 billion for video, and $14.8 billion for broadband.

Not Too Far to Travel
American Cable Association president and CEO Matt Polka said from that perspective, it isn’t a big leap to just providing access to apps or other content sources.

“What’s wrong with giving the consumer access to go wherever they want to go?” Polka said. “We’re trying to enable all of that, our members are trying to get that choice and control more to the consumer to the extent the content companies allow us to do it.”

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – While Net Neutrality seems to take up most of the headlines when it comes to cable regulatory issues, American Cable Association president Matt Polka says there are other, less provocative matters in Washington that are putting pressure on broadband investment.

Polka, taking a minute between sessions at NCTC's Winter Educational Conference here Tuesday, said while supporting Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai’s order to rescind Title II regulation of broadband is a No. 1 priority for his group, a close second is streamlining and simplifying the regulatory process as well as updating antiquated laws that hold back investment, innovation and competition.

Though decidedly less sexy than net neutrality, these issues are just as important to small operators, he added.

“It’s pole attachments, access to conduits so that we can provide the broadband wire to deliver the broadband promise, the permitting process, the application process, the costs and the fees imposed, the government entities that have to be involved, particularly if you cross federal land,” Polka said.

Next on the priority list are more familiar issues regarding programming costs and access that are all the more pressing as the content distribution industry evolves.

“The major content owners are all looking to give consumers their content over the top, often at cheaper consumer rates that we have to pay at the wholesale rate,” Polka said. “At the same time they are still holding us hostage to the ever increasing sizes of their bundles, carriage of affiliate programming, price increases and making less of their content available in specialty tiers [and] ala carte. From the linear cable perspective it hasn’t changed, in fact it’s probably just gotten worse.

“Consumers now understand they can have more choice, except on cable, except when it comes to getting my broadcast channels because of 26 year-old retransmission consent rules,” he continued. “This is not the time to relax broadcast ownership rules, it’s a time to truly create more competition in the market by revising outdated rules that no longer have a reason to exist.”

ACA also is keeping a close eye on pending mergers, and has come out against consolidation moves like AT&T-Time Warner, Disney-Fox and Tribune-Sinclair Broadcasting because they see those mergers as creating a win-lose atmosphere for small operators when it comes to carriage negotiations.  

“They [content creators] all realize they have to be bigger and hold more of the pie to have greater leverage,” Polka said. “With our members, it was never was much of a negotiation to begin with, it’s even less of one now.”

And all of these issues are intertwined with broadband, which has outpaced video in terms of revenue, subscribers and profitability for most operators as time has progressed. Preserving and expanding that broadband reach to those that need it is reliant on favorable legislation.

“The ability to provide consumers the service that they need and want is essential, but you have to have the flexibility to manage and build that network and pay for it,” Polka said. “The introduction of heavy-handed regulation that could result in rate regulation and prohibit recovering costs would immediately torpedo that idea.

“Washington does matter,” he continued. “And this is why we fight.”

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- New Street Research managing partner Jonathan Chaplin said the cable business is going to look vastly different in the next five years.

“In five years you’re going to go think about this industry very differently,” Chaplin said at the NCTC Winter Educational Conference here Monday. “Today the wireless and cable industries have completely separate networks. In five years, those networks will be as one. The industries are going to converge as well.”

Read More: Additional Coverage of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference

Chaplin calls the coming wireless battle a Clash of the Titans, pitting large cable operators like Comcast and Charter against wireless behemoths like AT&T and Verizon Communications.

Both industries are putting their competitive toes in each other’s business, with Comcast and Charter Communications striking Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreements with Verizon Communications. Altice USA struck a similar deal with Sprint late last year and Cox Communications is expected to have a similar offering, most likely with Sprint at some point, Chaplin said.

MVNO agreements help make the economics of wireless better for cable operators, Chaplin said. He estimated that with their current MVNOs, Comcast and Charter can offer wireless service at the same cost as the No. 3 operator in the country, T-Mobile. As more and more voice traffic moves over IP and WiFi, those costs drop to the level of the No. 1 and No. 2 providers, Verizon and AT&T.

Lower costs mean a greater opportunity to offer disruptive pricing. And the advent of 5G will further lower those costs, as well as reducing dependence on MVNOs.

Chaplin estimated the wireless business is about twice the size of the cable business and that in the ensuing battle for customers, cable will win, gaining nearly $30 billion in wireless revenue, mostly at the expense of existing carriers. Those carriers will likely gain about $5 billion in broadband revenue, which will be offset by the wireless declines.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – As the number of connected devices in the home expands, the threat of consumers cutting their broadband cord increases, but operators are not powerless in the battle to grow and retain customers, according to a session at the NCTC Winter Educational Conference here Tuesday (Feb. 13).

Parks Associates senior director of research Brett Sappington said that connected devices in the home have increased from just over eight in 2015 to 9.2 in 2017, and consumers are demanding higher and higher bandwidth to accommodate that equipment. At the same time, he said that about 12% of U.S. households are mobile-only.

Read More: Additional Coverage of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference

Sappington said the consumers most likely to go mobile-only aren’t surprising – they are mainly younger people who have been in their homes a short period of time. Price sensitivity is also an issue. Customers of the least expensive wireless services like Metro PCS and T-Mobile are more likely to go mobile-only (about 12% of Metro PCS and 11% of T-Mobile wireless customers say they would go mobile only, compared with 7% for AT&T and 5% for Verizon wireless customers).

As unlimited wireless plans and zero-rating for video continue to proliferate, so does the drive to go all mobile. But fixed service has speed, throughput and latency advantages over wireless, according to Sappington.

He added that loyalty for existing broadband subscribers is pretty high – about 50% of consumers that have both a fixed and mobile service say they will absolutely not switch, according to Parks Associates research.

Cable operators can continue to battle the mobile-only threat by doing what they have been doing in the past – partnering with wireless service providers, bundling services, providing access to OTT options and offering premium WiFi options.

“Bundling still works,” Sappington said, adding that operators have to “learn to live with mobile services, and how we can evolve or strategies to include the reality of mobile data in our packages.”  

CuriosityStream, the subscription VOD service founded by Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks, will be seeking distribution deals with hundreds of tier 2/3 cable opera taros after forging a deal with the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC).

Read More: Additional Coverage of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference

The agreement, focused on NCTC’s membership of 850-plus indie operators that serve nearly 9 million subs, will enable those operators to offer CuriosityStream’s offering of more than 1,500 documentaries, via their VOD service and through a streaming app that supports a wide range of mobile and TV-connected platforms.

RELATED: CuriosityStream Connects With Vizio’s Smart TVs

Plans are also underway to integrate CuriosityStream’s app on certain operator-supplied set-top box platforms later this year, they said. 

Pricing of the SVOD service through the NCTC deal wasn’t announced, but CuriosityStream’s stand-alone, retail OTT offering starts at $2.99 per month for a “Basic” standard-def tier, while Standard (which supports HD) runs $5.99, and its Premium tier, with access to the service’s 4K library, runs $11.99 per month.

CuriosityStream, a service launched in March 2015, has not announced subscriber numbers. However, the NCTC agreement builds on its strategy to work with various types of distributors. Those partners include Comcast, Layer3 TV (now part of T-Mobile), Sling TV, Amazon Channels and VRV, the Ellation-owned SVOD aggregation/bundling service.   

The CuriosityStream deal also expands on the NCTC’s focus on helping its members work with or integrate new services from the OTT world. As part of an effort to help those members have a video option for broadband-only customers, the NCTC has recently signed deals with two virtual MVPDs – fuboTV and PlayStation Vue.

The NCTC-CuriosityStream agreement was announced in concert with this week’s NCTC Winter Educational Conference in San Antonio. At a session today, panelists urged operators to tighten their ties to SVOD services that can enhance or complement their pay TV offerings.

RELATED: Operators Should Embrace SVOD to Attract Next Generation

"CuriosityStream is proud to partner with NCTC to give its members and their enormous customer base easy access to the world's greatest collection of non-fiction programming that empowers viewers to satisfy their curiosity about their favorite subjects," Clint Stinchcomb, chief distribution officer for CuriosityStream, said in a statement.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Operators should embrace subscription video-on-demand services, making it easier for younger viewers to access their Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Hulu subscriptions, a duo of researchers told attendees at the NCTC Winter Educational Conference here Monday.

Parks Associates senior director of research Brett Sappington noted that most users of SVOD services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are younger (aged 25-34) and have been in their homes less than 12 months, adding that people who have SVOD subscriptions also have some form of pay TV service.

Sappington said the fastest segment among video consumers are households that are taking two, three and four services, so they aren’t averse to paying for content, they just don’t want to pay or what they don’t want.

“People that love video pay for video,” Sappington said.

Read More: Additional Coverage of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference

Hub Entertainment Research president Peter Fondulas pointed out that SVOD usage is growing as well as the number of services they use. But according to Hub’s research, live TV is still the first thing that most viewers turn on when they want to watch content. According to Hub’s research, 47% of respondents went to live TV first, followed by Netflix (19%) and the DVR (13%).

Pay TV distributors can tap into the younger SVOD market in several ways, he added. Partnering with SVOD providers through promotions – offering six months of free Netflix, for example – is the easiest. Next is actively selling a service alongside of or as a replacement for existing service – like Amazon is doing with Amazon Channels – followed by bundling an SVOD product with broadband or integrating SVOD apps into set-top boxes.

Sappington said that distributors should be open to forming partnerships with SVOD providers, as well as leveraging industry innovation; tying tech products like TiVo or Roku to their brands will uniquely address customer needs.

Related: RCN Rolls 4K-Ready Box in Lehigh Valley

Fondulas said another plus would be making more episodes and seasons available for binge watching, as well as making it easier for customers to find shows they might like.

“People worry that there are shows they will love that they’ve never heard about,” Fondulas said. “This is creating opportunities for companies that can aggregate across sources. Pay TV operators are already taking advantage of the opportunity.”

He noted Comcast’s and Cox Communications’ moves to integrate the Netflix app into their set-tops, adding that other ways to attract the next generation of viewers is to offer slimmed down bundles of programming to address content proliferation, as well as considering incorporating other online platforms into the set-top to keep viewers in the ecosystem.

“Pay TV is not dead,” Fondulas said.     

San Antonio, Texas -- With a new focus on acquiring content that was previously relegated to pay TV services, social media and tech giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google are focusing more on disrupting traditional pay TV, director of USC’s Annenberg School of Media Innovation Lab and author Jonathan Taplin told an audience at the opening keynote of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference here.

Read More: Additional Coverage of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference

Taplin, whose book Move Fast and Break Things traced the monopolization of the internet by Google Facebook and Amazon, noted that while over the years those three companies focused on other business segments, they are increasingly honing in on the video business. Facebook’s $610 million bid for streaming rights to Indian Cricket matches – it lost out to Fox – is just one example of how serious the tech giants are becoming about video.

The largest corporations of the world -- Google, Amazon and Facebook --  are going to be the new gatekeepers, Taplin said.  

In addition to Cricket rights, Facebook has tried to incorporate its GUI into set-top boxes as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s “Unlock the Box” initiative back in 2016, which has since fizzled in the new administration but could surface again. Taplin said giving Facebook access to set-tops cold decimate pay TV’s local ad business.

“They’ll keep trying that,” Taplin said. “So, you’ve got to be careful.”

Adding to the pressure is that the next generation of TV viewers have grown up with 100-Mbps broadband connections, creating their own media systems without cable.

“You have to be aware that this notion of cord-cutting is real,” Taplin said. “These companies are coming for your business.”

Taplin said operators can fight back in several ways, offering skinnier programming bundles in response to competition and reliable, high-speed data connections. He added that the traditional method of delivering and buying programming also will change in the future.

The current ecosystem where distributors are forced to buy large bundles of programming from content providers, even those shows that have little viewership, has to change, he added.

“A lot of those channels don’t pass the ‘who cares’ test,” Taplin said. "You have to stand up to the channels that nobody is watching.”

RCN Corp. said it has begun to roll out a 4K-ready box to customers in Lehigh Valley, Pa., that integrates the operator’s pay TV service with some OTT content.

RCN’s rollout there includes cities such as Bethlehem, Easton and Allentown.

The device is made by Arris and is powered by TiVo’s software and user interface. The remote also supports a remote finder and a dedicated button for Netflix, which features a small but growing 4K library.

Arris’s MG2 Cable Media Gateway is an HDR- and 4K-capable, six-tuner device with a 1-TB hard drive and integrated MoCA 2.0

The 4K-facing agreement expands on a collaboration between RCN and TiVo that started in 2009.

Espial said Buckeye Broadband, an operator that serves parts of northwest and Ohio and southeast Michigan, has inked a deal to license Espial’s “Elevate” software-as-a service video platform.

The move will enable Buckeye Broadband to provide integrated access to OTT services such as Netflix and YouTube, as well as new voice-based navigation features.

RELATED: Espial Adds Amazon Alexa Voice Support to ‘Elevate’ Platform

The agreement expands on the video relationship between Buckeye Broadband and Espial. Part of that stems from Buckeye’s deployment of a multi-room DVR centered on Arris’s Whole Home Solution offering. Espial acquired Arris's Whole Home Solution business in 2016.

RELATED: Buckeye Bucks Up Multiroom DVR with Arris Gateway Launch

“Elevate enhances the experience of our video customers, while giving us flexibility in how we deliver those experiences in the future,” Jeff Abbas, president and GM of Buckeye Broadband, aid in a statement. “The continuous innovation being driven on Elevate helps us increase customer engagement and satisfaction while mindfully controlling our expenses.”

The agreement was announced amid this week’s NCTC Winter Educational Conference in San Antonio.

Read More: Additional Coverage of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference

Espial struck a similar deal last fall with MCTV for services supporting live TV, whole home DVR and OTT apps.

Buckeye Broadband also markets a TiVo-based offering under the “Express TV” brand.

To help fuel its IP video transition, Mediacom Communications will deploy Evolution’s “eBOX,” a hybrid IP/QAM set-top that will be powered by TiVo’s software and user interface.

Read More: Additional Coverage of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference

Mediacom, which has deploying a video offering that leans on TiVo’s platform since striking the original deal in 2012, will use the eBOX as its primary, next-gen, non-DVR device throughout its footprint.

RELATED: Mediacom Powers Up TiVo Play

Evolution Digital said Mediacom’s deployment of the eBOX will include Evolution Digital-enabled IP-based pay-per-view services.

“We are excited to bring Evolution Digital’s cost-effective eBOX to our customers and provide the best content available on an enriched and streamlined platform,” JR Walden SVP and CTO of Mediacom, said in a statement. “We have made the eBOX our primary next-generation non-DVR set-top box for households throughout our systems.”

The new agreement exposes eBOX to Mediacom’s base of nearly 1.4 million customers.

Examples of other operators that are deploying Evolution Digital’s eBOX include GCI, RCN, Wave Broadband, WideOpenWest (WOW!), and several operators that are tied into Evolution’s agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative.

Evolution Digital timed the announcement with this week’s NCTC Winter Educational Conference in San Antonio.

The latest eBOX deployment deal also comes on the heels of Evolution’s introduction last week of the eSTREAM 4K, an all-IP device for on tier 2/3 cable providers that’s powered by Android TV.

RELATED: Evolution Digital Launches Android TV-Based Box for MVPDs

With the cable industry in probably its greatest period of change since the invention of hybrid fiber coax, small and midsized cable operators are set to converge on San Antonio, Texas, next week (Feb. 12-13) for the National Cable Television Cooperative’s annual Winter Educational Conference. Themed “Break the Rules,” the conference offers networking opportunities as attendees engage with peers and experts in the technology, legislative and business fields to share ideas and best practices. NCTC president Rich Fickle spoke with Multichannel News about the conference and some of the topics that are top of mind for small and midsized cable operators across the country. Here are highlights.

MCN: What do you see as the biggest issues facing small and medium-sized operators today, and how are you addressing them at this conference?
Rich Fickle: On the video front, our focus based on members’ input is to help them get to a video platform that is low cost, but has very competitive features. One of the main themes that you will see at the show is we’re encouraging members to think about going app-based. In other words, you don’t have to have a set-top, you can download an app onto Roku or an Android set top or Apple TV and it will have the cable operator’s lineup. That blends the content choices in with OTT offerings for the consumer.

The driver of that is twofold: One is lowering the cost structure, because programming costs are taking most of the money out of the video business; and secondly, in an IP world with consumer devices like that, you can get a lot more innovation than you can out of the traditional MPEG2 set-top-supplier world.

MCN: How is that going to lower costs? Is it just equipment — set-tops and the like — or is this going to mean lower costs for programming, too?
RF: I wish it would lower programming costs, but definitely the cost of set-tops. In our world, members have been paying $300 to $400 per home or more just for set-tops and in this environment you could choose to let the consumer provide the set-top or you could provide one that is a lot less, like $70 per TV. This type of transmission, using IP, is a lot more bandwidth-efficient, so it is going to save, over the long term, bandwidth. If you want to have a more robust on-demand offering, if you want to have a better mobile solution, these things are part of the whole offering. You don’t have to stand up a lot of new infrastructure to get that done. It’s just a lot easier to bring new features in without huge cost.

MCN: Do you think the time is ripe for this because broadband has taken such a front-and-center role, and cable appears to be the quality and capacity leader?
RF: If you’re going to put investments into your business, the best place to put it is in making sure your broadband network is robust and high capacity and things like helping customers with their home network and ensuring that the service quality is super high with wireless routers and monitoring capabilities. It’s much better to put your money in those things rather than legacy video set-tops or legacy video headend equipment.

MCN: What other things are you seeing that look promising on the tech front for smaller cable operators?
RF: The home networking side is looking pretty exciting because there are now a dozen new companies entering that space. The interesting part is the software control systems that monitor what’s happening in the house and make it easy to ensure the quality is really good.

[In] the network itself, there are a lot of interesting things going on with deep fiber, the idea of wireless to the home from the last couple of hundred feet — we have a few members testing that out already. So instead of running a cable drop, you’re setting up a wireless connection into that home and in some cases a business.

MCN: Tell me what else is in store for conference attendees?
RF: We’ve got some great speakers. Jonathan Taplin, who wrote a book [Move Fast and Break Things] about breaking the rules. He’s kind of a renegade in the media world; he should be a provocative opening speaker. We also have the editor-in-chief [Nicholas Thompson] from Wired magazine. The other item that we are focusing on in this show is more sales and marketing. We’ve got a couple of really good sessions and a dynamic speaker to talk about, in this world of more competition, how do you change your approach to sales and marketing. Plus, we’re going to have fun. A big part of the reason people come is they want to share ideas and it’s where they learn what’s working and what’s not working.

NCTC’s WEC at a Glance

Where: Marriott Rivercenter, San Antonio, Texas When: Feb. 12-13 Key Speakers: Jonathan Taplin, director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and author of Move Fast and Break Things; Wired magazine editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson; Meridith Elliott Powell, author and business strategist; Matt Polka, ACA president; Gerard Kunkel, founder/managing partner, Next Media Partners.

Small operators seeking insight and information on competition, continued industry consolidation and the power of Internet-protocol video can seek it this month at the National Cable Television Cooperative’s Winter Education Conference. If for no other reason, it’s in New Orleans.

The NCTC said more than 270 members have already signed up for the Feb. 20-21 gathering (more than the number that attended last year’s meeting in Phoenix). More than 200 exhibitor representatives have signed on for about 80 booths and tables.

Advanced video platforms will be the focus of this year’s meeting, a topic on the minds of every small cable operator looking for a competitive advantage.

“The focus will be emphasizing how to compete in the new video world. There are several components to it, a blend of technology, marketing and market research,” NCTC CEO Rich Fickle told The Wire, adding the co-op is in the middle of finalizing an RFP with 16 different companies for IP and advanced video technologies.

Click through to the WEC agenda.

SITTING ON AN ANDROID

“We’re looking at systems that can be used without set-top boxes and, in some cases, they can sit on top of an Android TV set-top,” Fickle said. “The choices for how cable operators serve their customers have opened up quite a bit.”

The event will also feature industry experts from Leichtman Research, CableLabs and Parks Associates, among others, addressing topics including the evolution of the U.S. video market, leveraging IP video and the connected home. The conference also offers multiple networking opportunities and a Solutions Showcase exhibit hall featuring the latest suppliers and innovators, as well as product forum presentations.

Fickle pointed to the proliferation of digital MVPDs like Sling TV, DirecTV Now, Sony PlayStation Vue and YouTube Unplugged, adding that the NCTC will unveil some market research at the WEC that will offer more insight into how consumers look at apps and the services delivered through them.

Attendees can also gauge the regulatory climate in Washington, D.C., with a Monday, Feb. 20, discussion headed by America Cable Association CEO Matt Polka. Leichtman Research president and principal analyst Bruce Leichtman will offer a look at the state of the video and broadband industries, and panel discussions from top executives at Eagle Broadband, RCN, CenturyLink, CableLabs, Cable One, Parks Associates and Buckeye Broadband will provide insight into competitive and technology issues.

Pricing and packaging of services will also be discussed, especially as skinny bundles proliferate throughout the pay TV universe.

“We have several members who have been doing different flavors of that,” Fickle said, adding that there will be panels and research released at the conference around those strategies. “It’s all about how to compete and how to drive costs down but improve the customer experience. A lot of it is done through IP, which is a different approach than we have done in the past.”

TAKING IT EASIER

Fickle added that programming contracts, which had constrained smaller operators from offering skinnier bundles, are easing up.

“The deals we’ve done over the last few years with the programmers have changed the restrictions,” Fickle said. “It’s not what everybody wants, which is, you can package anything you want, but it’s pretty comparable to what the larger MVPDs can do.”

Consolidation, a big topic when Charter Communications was pursuing Time Warner Cable — it closed the deal in May — isn’t as high on the priority list for small operators today. While there are likely some deals left to be done, Fickle said the emphasis is on cooperation.

“There are efforts underway to find ways for smaller operators to either partner up with some of the larger companies or band together even tighter to replicate some of the same capabilities, working together as a cooperative group of entities,” Fickle said. “Some of that needs to happen. I don’t think it’s something to panic about. Probably in the next five years it needs to be pursued in earnest.”

Elsewhere...

Mr. Wheeler’s Tweets Offer Pointed Words

Former Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler didn’t take long to signal he would be a vocal critic of the new Trump administration, both at the White House and at the agency.

After tweeting “Congratulations Chairman Pai” on Jan. 20 — when Wheeler exited the FCC — by Feb. 1 he was taking aim at Pai’s decision to take the set-top box rule out of circulation. Wheeler had kept it in front of the commissioners for a possible vote, though that was highly unlikely to come from either Pai or his fellow Republican, Michael O’Rielly, who both opposed the revamp.

Wheeler and Pai had what often appeared to be a rocky relationship, exhibiting at times a strained courtesy at meetings, sparring in Hill hearings, and clearly at loggerheads over key policy and process issues.

On Jan. 31, after Pai pulled the set-top revamp item (a Wheeler centerpiece), and the day Pai presided over his first public meeting, Wheeler’s tone shifted as he took aim at both Pai and the cable industry — the latter a familiar target.

“Removing set-top box rule victory for Cable-wood over consumers,” Wheeler tweeted (Hollywood studios joined ISPs in pushing back on the set-top item), adding: “$200 million Pai Tax on helpless cable subs. Trump helping little guy??”

The chairman’s office had no comment. The Wire’s comment: Ouch!

— John Eggerton

Evolution Digital said it has notched a deal to offer a TiVo-powered IP/QAM set-top powered by TiVo to members of the National Cable Television Cooperative, a group that assembled programming and technology deals for many of the nation’s independent cable operators.

Evolution Digital didn’t announce if any NCTC members are on board yet, but noted that it ported TiVo’s software onto its low-cost hybrid platform last summer. Notably, WideOpenWest (WOW) announced a joint development deal with TiVo and Evolution Digital last year that will enable the MSO to offer a blend of traditional linear TV and VOD services and over-the-top content via a new low-cost hybrid IP/QAM device and through Web and mobile apps powered by the TiVo platform.

Today, under “Bravo,” an NCTC platform that acts as an intermediary between tier 2/3 cable operators, co-op members can purchase the TiVo-based Evolution Digital hybrid devices “with full functionality at a lower cost,” the companies said. Those TiVo-powered devices from Evolution  Digital are also available to NCTC members that are not operating on the Bravo platform.

Evolution Digital said the hybrid set-tops can also be flipped to support an all-IP platform that supports live TV, VOD and network DVR apps on a unified, TiVo-based platform. Colorado-based Evolution recently introduced an IP video platform called eVUE-TV that stems from its acquisition last year of  i-Velozity.

“Our IP Hybrid STB powered by TiVo integrates the operator’s cable channel line-up with the leading OTT services to provide viewers with a seamless viewing experience,” Marc Cohen, executive vice president of sales at Evolution Digital, said in a statement. “Our great relationships with TiVo and NCTC now give operators with membership in the NCTC an affordable option for delivering our leading technology without integration fees, but with all the same innovative features TiVo offers.”

“NCTC is proud to partner with Evolution Digital to give our members another way to offer a superior entertainment experience,” added NCTC CEO and president Rich Fickle, CEO and president at NCTC. “We developed the Bravo platform to allow cable operators access to what their customers are asking for, but at a price point that is accessible for the provider.”

Evolution Digital and NCTC timed the announcement with this week’s Winter Educational Conference in Phoenix.