The future of cable services: Blending traditional delivery with on-demand innovation

The advent of new video delivery technology has generated speculation about the future of traditional cable services. Some analysts predict a total collapse of the legacy cable model, while others regard the rapid growth of non-linear, Internet-based services merely as a new wrinkle in the already complicated media landscape. Simultaneously, both mainstream media and the industry trade press have reported that traditional cable operators wish to create innovative service offerings that take advantage of the delivery efficiency still provided by the traditional cable plant. Such "blended" services would incorporate the subscriber-fee revenues associated with traditional cable services while also expanding access to newer, more innovative programming platforms associated with broadband delivery, such as Voice-Over-IP Phone Services. However, to date, neither research nor industry has yet developed a viable conceptual framework with which to assimilate the growing range of innovative cable service offerings. Industry progress toward the realization of such blended service models has been both piecemeal and stochastic (Minerva et al., 2020; Brous et al., 2020; Casey & Hackett, 2021).