Print Industry Disruption Drivers Not There for TV, Telcos

Some might argue that among the primary reasons for the disruption of print industry business models were high fixed cost, high debt loads and inability to satisfy new end user demands for content formats. Some might think those same issues will affect the video subscription business. Some might say such issues will have more implications for communications service providers than cable TV and other video distributors. Traditional TV disruption

The argument that the same "high fixed cost, high debt load, new application" pressures will afflict the subscription TV business, as the Internet has reshaped the print industry, is an argument some of us might consider too glib. Execs don't agree.

Time Warner Cable executives are right to point out that people really do want to watch professionally-produced video. TWC executives also are almost certainly right that abandonment of video subscriptions specifically for the purpose of consuming professional content online is not happening, much. Little evidence of major cord cutting

But high debt and high fixed cost, as well as an inability to keep up with new application creation, does sound more like the telecom industry, some might argue. That is not to say the need for broadband and Internet access ever "goes away." But some might argue that the better historical fit is "print industry and telecom," rather than "print industry and TV."