It's taken years longer than originally predicted by industry soothsayers, but cable is finally getting to the point where consumers are really in control. Video on demand, digital video recorders,
and broadband Internet have conspired to transform the way paying subscribers view the cable programming that comes into their home. That was the dominant messages yesterday as the cable industry's
annual trade show got started in Atlanta. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons, participating on panels at the confab, said they thought the changing business models were good
for the industry because they would "grow the pie" of overall viewership. Still, the shifting landscape has presented the industry with real challenges. The Associated Press' Seth Sutel: "Cable
operators continue to struggle to find top-rated shows to drive usage of their growing on-demand services, which currently make up about 5 percent of viewership in the places they're available, a
figure cable executives would like to expand.... Cable executives say their efforts to date to get viewers back to the couch with key services like on-demand viewing have had promising results, but
they say more has yet to be done."
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