The Structure of the Video Programming Industry: Revolution, Regulation, or The Return of Yesterday's Battles?

Co-sponsored by the Cable Center and the Communications Technology Professionals

The structure of the video programming industry is facing a perfect storm of technological change, increased competition, and calls for new regulation. Responding to these forces, both producers and distributors of video content are increasingly exploring new business models, ranging from streaming video to same day DVD release to video on demand. In some cases, these business models undermine established patterns of doing business and call into question existing regulatory policies. To explore this set of issues, this conference will bring together a group of industry leaders to examine the intertwined policy, business, and technological issues.

The conference will address the changing industry structure by focusing on three distinct set of themes–the opportunities and challenge of independent networks; the role of access regulation; and the impact of new technologies. In terms of the rise of independent networks, some view the challenges of the NFL Network and claim that the barriers to entry are simply too great. Others, however, suggest that the legacy model of cable networks is unsustainable in the face of continually rising programming costs and opportunities for distribution via the Internet. As to access regulation, the re-authorization of the program access rules and recently initiated proceeding looking at cable network bundling reflect concerns about market power and vertical integration. For the cable industry, the increasing regulatory attention at a time of increasing competition is difficult to understand. Any new regulatory initiatives (or continuation of old ones) must grapple with the impact of new technologies, particularly those related to the Internet, and the question of whether TV viewing will be liberated from the traditional delivery channels and available in multi-forms and in different media or will continue to rely on intermediaries in a world where viewing habits may well be stubborn and resistant to change.