Billionaire John Malone's re-emergence in the U.S. cable business is a bet on the growth of broadband, and he believes the industry can soon deliver speeds that are at least 10 times faster than the connections available to the majority of Americans today.
In an exclusive interview Friday with The Denver Post, Malone also said residential high-speed Internet service will ultimately move to a tiered-pricing model that's similar to the wireless industry, where fees are based on the amount of data consumed rather than speed.
Malone's Liberty Media, a communications and entertainment conglomerate based in Douglas County, completed a deal in May to acquire a 27 percent stake in cable-TV provider Charter Communications for $2.6 billion.
The investment, which marked Malone's return to the U.S. cable industry after more than a decade, was spurred, in part, by the anticipated surge in demand for broadband capacity as consumers view more online video.
"In prime time, about half of all the traffic on the Internet is Netflix or Amazon — in other words, it's video," he said. "As that trend continues, the need for greater capacity on the local distribution of the Internet really favors cable, and our belief is that cable will be able to charge more for higher speeds and greater capacity."
Continue reading here.
In an exclusive interview Friday with The Denver Post, Malone also said residential high-speed Internet service will ultimately move to a tiered-pricing model that's similar to the wireless industry, where fees are based on the amount of data consumed rather than speed.
Malone's Liberty Media, a communications and entertainment conglomerate based in Douglas County, completed a deal in May to acquire a 27 percent stake in cable-TV provider Charter Communications for $2.6 billion.
The investment, which marked Malone's return to the U.S. cable industry after more than a decade, was spurred, in part, by the anticipated surge in demand for broadband capacity as consumers view more online video.
"In prime time, about half of all the traffic on the Internet is Netflix or Amazon — in other words, it's video," he said. "As that trend continues, the need for greater capacity on the local distribution of the Internet really favors cable, and our belief is that cable will be able to charge more for higher speeds and greater capacity."
Continue reading here.
