I'm OK, You're Not OK, Say Television Executives

When it comes to video cord-cutting, TV executives are moving out of the denial stage. They are now claiming it is someone else's problem.

Consider comments at last week's Goldman Sachs media conference on the issue, which involves consumers ditching cable-TV subscriptions in favor of cheaper Web TV options. Verizon Communications Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg candidly warned that just as cord-cutting devastated the traditional landline phone business, as customers went mobile, it would hit video. Verizon is in the video business through its FiOS network. But Mr. Seidenberg said that given FiOS's high capacity and ability to offer extras like 3-D, "we will be OK," whereas it "is going to be a pretty big issue for cable." Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, insisted, "I feel pretty good about us," given that cable operators' broadband infrastructure is needed for Web access. "This is more focused on the entertainment business than on us," he added. But John Martin, finance chief of entertainment company Time Warner, insisted that "our type of company should benefit" if viewers cut the cord en masse. The reality is all companies are threatened to some degree. After all, right now, nearly 97% of households with TVs subscribe either to cable, satellite or phone company-delivered video service, Nielsen estimates, with subscription proceeds effectively being split between providers and entertainment companies.