US cable companies should create Netflix rival: Malone

Liberty Media Chairman John Malone said that cable companies should team up to create a rival to Netflix that would deliver programming over the Internet on a national basis.

Cable companies could "solve the problem" of high programming costs by acquiring content for an Internet-based service under one brand that they would sell in a bundle with broadband, Malone said. He used the example of Comcast's Xfinity video streaming product one day being shared with the rest of the cable industry to become a national brand. He added that another alternative would be for Hulu to "be bought and syndicated" by cable companies or for an entrepreneur to create a new product from scratch that the cable industry can get behind.