Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit told an audience at the Deutsche Bank Media & Telecom conference today that the proliferation of over-the-top video competitors isn’t forcing the largest cable operator in the country to change its game.
Comcast is coming off one of its best year’s in a decade – basic video customer growth of 161,000 subscribers, the first time since 2006 the company showed positive growth in that metric, and its best high-speed Internet service growth in nine years. Last week, Comcast unveiled a link to YouTube content via its X1 platform set-tops and expects to launch a wireless service in the middle of the year.
“We know how to compete,” Smit said at the Deutsche Bank conference in Palm Beach, Fla. “The value of the bundle is a wonderful thing.”
Smit said Comcast’s concentration on growing its VOD content library has paid off -- customers have more than 100,000 VOD choices and 85% of its base use on-demand service and average of 20 hours per month.
Smit added the next part of the puzzle is improving customer service, a company mantra for years. While there is room for improvement, Smit noted that Comcast reduced service calls by 22 million last year and added 858,000 total customer relationships.
“It’s taking noise out of the system and it’s enabling us to operate more efficiently and effectively for the customer,” Smit said.
