• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, March 1, 2011 11:48 AM

How are paid TV companies competing with the rise of online video services from Hulu to Netflix? Quite differently, it appears. Despite possessing the most robust platform for delivering video online, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts tells The Wall Street Journal that the company has no plans to extend its services to customers beyond its cable footprint. "Where we can add value ... is taking our existing customers and giving them full access to all content online because they're subscribers," Roberts says.

By contrast, satellite operator Dish recently told investors that is was talking to cable networks about acquiring rights for a streaming video service, GigaOm points out. "While Comcast says it has no interest in building streaming-only offerings for customers that don't live in its cable network, Dish Network is trying to secure rights from its content partners to offer its own over-the-top video services," adds GigaOm.

In his interview with WSJ, Comcast's Roberts does even see video services as direct competitors. "Roberts referred to Netflix as the new version of reruns, and explained his view that it raises the value of NBCUniversal's content," Engadget notes. Adds DSLReports.com: "Roberts insists that at the moment Internet video is 'more friend than foe,' and that Comcast may have less to fear than other companies because they 'give the best Internet experience, residentially, in this country.'"

"Of course, Roberts, and other pay-TV executives, have taken great pains to assert that new over-the-top services aren't competing with their core video subscription services," writes Business Insider. "Those assertions came under fire last year as the pay-TV industry lost subscribers for the 2nd and 3rd quarters, leading to wildly over-hyped predictions of cord-cutting, which have abated as 4^th quarter subscriber losses improved."

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »