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July 1, 2010
2010 Top OPS Awards: Independent Strategic Thinker of the Year: Tom Might
Tom Might, President/CEO
Cable One
Cable One has never been about early adoption. That’s just how Tom Might likes it. Sitting on the sidelines while others sweat the details has served the company well, earning him our 2010 Independent Strategic Thinker honor. But this year Cable One, a Washington Post Company, is leading the charge. It plans to go all-digital and is pursuing an expanded waiver to deploy 200,000-plus digital terminal adapter (DTA) devices with HD capabilities. We asked Might about that and some of the issues facing mid-size cable operators.
CFAX: Update us on the all-digital upgrade.
TM: We still have 60% of our plant at 550 MH, and we’ve been planning for a long time to save bandwidth with the conversion to all-digital. We got road-blocked in ’97, then got banned under [FCC chief Kevin] Martin, which almost wrecked our plan. We expected to be doing this in ’07, not ’10. We haven’t run out of bandwidth yet; we’ve been very selective about its use and now we’re going to do it at a much lower cost. We asked for a waiver for one system [Dyersburg, TN], but our intention is to replicate the model across all 550 MH systems.
CFAX: Along with the upgrade you hope to deploy $50 DTA boxes. You’ve been pushing for the FCC not to classify HD services as "advanced." That’s revolutionary.
TM: We’re going to buy these devices with HD capabilities for $50 apiece. We’re leaving Motorola and breaking away from the duopoly. That process cost us six months, but it drove the price down to $50.
CFAX: What’s the biggest near-term challenge for a mid-size cable operator?
TM: The only issue that’s size-related is price discrimination for content on the retransmission side. We’re in the middle, so we don’t pay as much as most ACA companies, but it’s just a matter of size and discrimination.
CFAX: What other issues do operators face?
TM: The commoditization of the fundamental services we provide is the over-arching issue. It’s putting enormous pricing pressure on us. Bundling is one answer but not the entire answer. Despite having the lowest cost per subscriber, we have high customer satisfaction. We’ve gotten good at knowing where to spend money.
Fast Facts
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By the fall Cable One expects to have prototype boxes, with access and software provided by Nagravision.
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The Phoenix-based operator serves nearly 1 million subs in 19 states and has 1900 employees.
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