DENVER — In 60 years working across the technology-media-telecom industries, mogul John Malone has weathered a few global economic storms.
Appearing virtually for a fireside chat during the opening session Tuesday at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, his interviewer, Mike Fries, who runs Malone’s European cable conglomerate, Liberty Global, asked him if he sees any clouds coming up on the horizon for the cable industry.
How bad could things get? Think Sebastian Junger’s 1997 nonfiction bestseller The Perfect Storm.
“Are we headed into the third world war in a greatly weakened position as a country and as a west?” Malone said. “There are a lot of things to worry about right now when it comes to global stability.”
Beyond a possible invasion of Taiwan by China, which would badly disrupt the global semiconductor industry, there are threats to world order, he noted, with Russia's ongoing attack on Ukraine and the renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza ramping up global tensions.
Tipping off his Libertarian sensibilities not so subtly, Malone said there’s the prospect of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 corporate tax break expiring in 2025 with little prospect of a Democratic-led Congress voting to renew it.
Meanwhile, the resurrection of net neutrality talk in the FCC, Malone said, threatens to further cement “monopoly control" of TMT in the hands of the “tech giants,” further relegating cable providers into a position they've tried to thwart off for decades — simply as operators of “dumb pipes.”
But all is not bleak for the cable industry in Malone's forward-looking view.
He lauded decisions by Comcast and Charter to utilize legacy hybrid fiber-coax infrastructure for their next-generation 10G networks. This enabled both companies to get to market with multi-gig services faster and more efficiently.
“They can always add fiber as they go,” he said.
Malone also complimented the recent program licensing renewal deal negotiated between Disney and Charter.
“I was happy to see it,” he said. “It allows cable to start selling hybrid video services, mixtures of of streaming and linear. That will prolong the life of linear and continue that revenue stream. It will also slow down the transition of big tech becoming the primary provider of entertainment.”
To close the virtual fireside chat, Fries engaged his boss in a “lighting round” of questions that required one-word answers
Will Disney still own ESPN in five years? “No.”
Who are you a longtime buyer of, Apple or Google? “Google.”
Yes or no, the government wins its antitrust cast against Google? “There will be a settlement.”
The IPO market comes back in 2024 or 2025? “24.”
Yellowstone or Ted Lasso? “Ted Lasso.”
Cable's most exciting decade, in the past or the future. “Future.”
