- Comcast’s Dave Watson envisions cable as the “fourth carrier” as operators expand into wireless
- FCC chief Brendan Carr also touched upon cable’s role as the broadband market gets more converged
- As Comcast undergoes structural changes, Watson hinted more changes are coming
SCTE TECH EXPO 25, WASHINGTON DC - The cable industry is undergoing trying times, but Comcast’s opening keynote here in D.C. strived to show the opposite.
Dave Watson, CEO of Comcast’s Connectivity and Platforms unit, likened cable as “the nation’s fourth carrier,” which is an interesting choice of words following the EchoStar spectrum carve out. But in Watson’s case, he referred to how Comcast, Charter and other operators are leaning onto wireless and thus expanding their total addressable market — an industry-wide move that comes as cable operators face prolonged broadband subscriber declines.
Comcast sees $80 billion in market opportunities for broadband alone, he said. When factoring in wireless, “we’re talking $160-plus billion dollars," and Watson added business services is another area where Comcast is just “scratching the surface,” likely alluding to Comcast and Charter’s new MVNO deal with T-Mobile.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr similarly expressed enthusiasm for cable’s place in the wireless world during the opening keynotes at the event, a sentiment which of course included the mention of “convergence.”
“We didn’t talk about convergence for a decade at this point in time, but I think we’re seeing it as a practical matter for the first time ever,” Carr said. "You've got cable companies that are taking a higher percentage share of new mobile wireless subscribers than mobile wireless companies.”
Comcast C-level promotions
Change is in the air — not only across the cable industry but also within Comcast’s organization. The company this morning announced Comcast President Mike Cavanaugh will be promoted to co-CEO alongside Brian Roberts starting in January.
While Watson didn’t talk about the new CEO appointment, he did mention “there are things we’ve done that just fundamentally needed to change,” such as five-year price locks and updated broadband pricing. The latter is still a work in progress, he noted.
“I think the next leg of things is just making sure we have consumer packaging that’s affordable, [has] great performance but matches what every segment wants,” Watson stated. “For those that think we aren’t competitive in every segment, they’re wrong.”
He also acknowledged Comcast can do better in its marketing to consumers across all segments. “We need to tell the story differently, we need to work hard on that and that’s going to be coming up pretty soon.”