Comcast, Time Warner, And The Future Of The Cable Box

[Commentary] In acquiring Time Warner Cable, Comcast is obtaining a media company with a much different view of the cable box's future and the interplay between broadband Internet and cable television. While Time Warner has been willing to work with partners like Apple TV and Roku to provide cable television programming that doesn't go through actual cable boxes, Comcast's view is different.

Rather than a Roku or smart television future, it seems as though Comcast wants to essentially turn customer's cable boxes into smart devices. Much like other industry stakeholders like Twitter, Comcast is well aware that cable customers are outgrowing their cable boxes and remote controls -- and that new successor devices, like Xfinity sets and smartphone remote control apps, can capture all sorts of additional data that can then be monetized. The smart television revolution, of which Xfinity is very much a part, isn't just about offering a better viewing experience -- it's also about leveraging as much data about viewers as possible for advertisers and other parties. While companies like Amazon use every click a visitor makes to serve them with products and specialized services, cable providers haven't leveraged the data revolution to serve television viewers with customized ads yet. Comcast knows that the future belongs to the parties who can find out exactly how many seconds viewers pause their channel flipping when a show interests them--and they want to make sure it's them obtaining the data, not Roku, Google, or Apple.