'Video is Dead,' Analyst Laura Martin Declares

Focus on mobile, broadband, commercial she tells Independent Show

By Kent Gibbons, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/27/2010 5:34:23 PM

Sound-bite machine Laura Martin is still urging independent cable operators to protect their businesses against rapacious content providers.

Speaking at the Independent Show in Baltimore, a gathering of small-sized cable operator executives, the Needham & Co. media analyst urged them to focus on higher-margin businesses than their core video offerings.
That means broadband services, mobile products and commercial customers.

Laura Martin of Needham & Co. Moderator Corey McCarthy of the American Cable Association got her going by reminding her that at a February 2009 conference she got attention by declaring capitalism was dead. (It wasn't capable, alone, of bringing the ailing economy back was her point.)
 
"What's dead this year is video," she said. "It's a very sad thing. The programmers are destroying the video business."
Consumers are gravitating to Internet and mobile applications, she said, so operators should focus on mobile services, commercial services (because business customers pay higher margins) and modems, she said.

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