White: OTT Success Depends on Unbundling Nets

DirecTV chairman and CEO Mike White said that while some of his competitors – read Dish Network – have ventured into the nascent world of over-the-top video service, the business has several pitfalls, including a disincentive to make the service “too good.”

“If you make it too good, you’re going to cannibalize the business,” White said at the MoffettNathanson Media & Communications Summit in New York Thursday. “It’s really in the content companies’ interest to not make it too good.”

White’s chat with moderator and MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett had some ground rules – the DirecTV chief would not discuss speculation that DirecTV was in advanced merger talks with AT&T. But he did manage to break any tension early on, quipping to Moffett that he had to turn off his cell phone “in case I get a call.”

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