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tv   The Communicators  CSPAN  June 15, 2013 6:30pm-7:01pm EDT

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"> next, "the communicators with brian. -- ladies,st latest item mckinley. c-span, but to you as a public service. the communicators where we interviewed leaders of two of the largest communication companies. >> we are pleased to be joined by brian roberts with the chair
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and ceo of, has corporation. mr. roberts, what did comcast unveiled? >> a next entertainment operating system. all of these years you have a cable box in your home, the innovation is dependent on what they cable box can do. in the last 18 months, we have had an eye hot moment which is when the technology -- a ha moment which is when the technology allowed us to move it to the cloud. the club can keep up with you a you would not know. as a consumer, you do not care how we do it. you wanted to be faster to the content and to know your preferences and be fun. and easy and intuitive and beautiful. we unveiled x2. everything from being able to
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talk and to promote and say, find movies. boom, here is 20 choices. or find a done cheadle -- don cheadle, not only movies he has been in. it learns your preferences. it makes it easier to find content. it reminds -- it makes recordings easier to find. withn tomatoes ratings every movie. real-time changing. the whole company culture has evolved to be technology innovation and new products. we'll have it out later this year. >> you said that television will change more in five years and
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that in the last 15. are some examples? >> take on demand. we started with some content. we now have 40,000 shows on demand. it wants to go to tablets and phones. we want to be able to integrate the web as well as tv as well as ratings and twitter and facebook and social media. it is just exploding because of the technology options we have as consumers and different generations of consumers have different passions. we have to keep it very simple. we have to recognize we are not all the same. take the program guide. , weer than one guide showed six guys. one just for kids.
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one just for sports. rather than one guide, we showed six guides. 10 year old, it will show the guide that is appropriate. cameras andto take home security and lightning control, you can do that one click of your remote. you can do that. you cannot do any of that a few years ago. that is what we are excited about. >> a lot discussion right now about the issue of privacy. increased use of the cloud. new technology. thee does that fall in
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comcast world? >> the cable industry has a specific privacy law ahead of its time. one of the highest privacy standards of any industry. away more than the web and cloud. we operate a by the cable act. inre is great comfort it that. personalization and recommendations. if you want to opt out, you can easily do that. it is a huge conversation, very important that we know what is happening to our data. in our case, we do not ever take it and do something about you. that is not our business model. and so it is an advantage for us to try to remind people. the number of customers are showing -- another generation is very comfortable with the transparent, every picture, every image, it is ok to put out there about me.
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that is now how many of us grew up. make sure that generation has that. with a different view of privacy. it is a conversation that is relevant. want to be a part of that. it should touch on industries more infinitely. -- were evenly. it should be the same for all the consumers. we welcome being part of that. >> has the nsa been a part of comcast like we have seen with some of the disclosures with verizon? >> we get a lot subpoena for our customer records. i do not believe anything different from what we read and probably not the same at the same level. >> one other issue.
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a lot cart cable, what is your carte cable, what is your reaction to mccain? >> it would not be enough variation. there would not be a c-span. by a newspaper and you cannot say i do not want the business buy a newspaper and you cannot say, i do not want to the business section. flexibility and options for consumers. that is what we are hopeful for. we already have mobile packages. the question is, is this the government's role in negotiation with companies and distributors? in my view, this is best served in the business relationships and not government and mandates.
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we are very respectful. it's a subject we want want to be part of that dialogue. an operator, distributor, broadcaster, creator. are there conflicts with some of those models? >> of course. we have a unique company. it is never been more evident and ended show. the cross-section of media media and technology. there is no company with all of the potential for innovation, solving some the problems. whether it is privacy or tresses for consumers or ease of for consumers or ease of using the remote. it has to be managed. everybody is going at same direction where a global company can transform itself. we are very proud of
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where we are at and where we are going. >> brian roberts, ceo of comcast. what to introduce you to rob marcus who is chief operating officer of time warner cable. if you start by giving a snapshot of time warner, size, customers, etc. trustmark -- as etc.?te? -- >> we are the second largest provider in the country. growing is the fastest part. people think of us providing video and data and voice to consumers. in fact, we are spending a fair amount of effort targeting small and medium-sized businesses and eve are larger -- and even
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larger businesses. , a large partly of our total revenue is our traditional residential business. a sales at, we have a business which cross $1 billion last year on the fact of the presidential election. is the cable video part of this is growing right now? >> will not grown in a time. it is mature. , we are dependent upon new housing to grow the pie.ll given the economy, there's not not been a lot of increases. that has been a challenge.
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we have a return on occupied housing which we will. it will help us grow the video business. at the same time would've had limited growth in the universe of potential customers, with had a number of new entrances into the video space. it is been a new it librium. -- a new equilibrium. that has created a headwind for growth. onwe are very focused returning the business to growth and ultimately the way it happens is by ensuring we have a world-class video. demoing here that is relevant. a good is having customer service experience.
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that is something that has been --area where people have there's a lack of appreciation of the complexity and delivering service to 50 million homes. we are focused on it and doing a better and better job making our company easier to do business with is simply more customer friendly. ?> what are you doing here -- >> one of the areas that has been a focus of time and resource for us as improving our navigation experience. for a long time, we have had a very broad video offering. hundreds of linear channels and houses of hours of on-demand. -- thousands of hours of on- demand. makehallenge has been to it easier to find the content.
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our next generation navigation platform which really is looking forward and discovery of the great content we have always offered. guides used data for consumers to learn more about the shows they watch. a great search capability and what is pretty cool, based on the show you may be watching, a recommendation of other shows you may be interested in. the combination of those features take our video experience to a different level that we have had before. isinteresting is the guide hosting the cloud. in adition, it is written programming language that is standard. in the past, a lot of the cable
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software was proprietary. the limitation that it imposed was development had to be done with in time warner. we have the ability to capitalize on what is occurring outside of time warner cable. there are really smart people out there developing cool apps that might make the experience much better. that is very promising. the fact that it is hosted in the cloud is relevant. with that make modifications and updates based on consumer feedback that happened overnight on a keyboard. in the past, we had to make a major software push to 50 million set top boxes. not very flexible. ae new guide holds tremendous amount of permits for what the video experience will be going forward. among the other things we are
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demoing is the twc apps. about a year ago or so, we for ios an app platforms, ipad and iphone which enabled customers to view 300 linear channels of live video and 4000 hours of vod content. rendering any screen in the home atv which is pretty cool for the guestroom where you do or in the tv bathroom. it is pretty cool. the really great new development and we launched this only several weeks ago is that a subset of that content i just described is a global outside of the home under ios devices.
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12 linear channels available. this the subject of the conversations we are having with programs. customerslable for on the go. for the moment we launched the original app which i've mentioned ios which is available on the rokualso device which brings it to the big screen. since the day we launched the app, customers were clamoring to have the functionality outside of the home. it is available for customers outside of the home. evolved over time. more devices and more content and giving customers more choices and the way they consume video. real tv everywhere. -- hethe limitation talked about the right, it's a
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limitation on the tech side? is really there for the taking -- >> the technology is really there for the taking. it is purely a function of whether or not programs would grant us the right to bring that content outside of the home. within the home, it is not an issue. it is usually covered by the rights we already have. >> consumers have talked about the act -- authentication process for tv everywhere. >> that the something we are redefining. the key for us is for most .evices, is a one-time process you put in your credentials one- time and the next time you try to access our app on the device, it happens automatically. we are always trying to improve on that and make it easier for
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customers to access their username and password which sometimes a do not have readily of global the -- readily available. there are a lot of things we can do to ease that process. the goal is to make it easy and simple for customers. joined in 2005. he's started as senior executive vice president. ofserved as vice president mergers and acquisitions. when you were in that capacity, what did you work on? >> that was when i was at time warner inc., our parents. i did it under one title or another for eight years. to variousc partnerships related to time warner cable. when i moved on to time warner cable, i came in the capacity
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of senior executive vice president of what i joke about a grab the back of responsibilities ranging from legal to hr to programming deals. i've moved it to the cfo role. in washington for the cable show. what are some the issues you keep an eye on in washington? >> we are a highly regulated industry. we spent a lot of time thinking about the environment. rather than going into specifics, i would articulate a few core principles. we are most part i'm a in favor of an insurance that relative to other distributor -- for the most part, we are in favor of assuring their relative to other distributors we are treated in accordance. or is no reason that we should not be able to be treated the same way. taxation should be comparable
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so we can compete readily without the regulatory policies influencing the winners and losers. with respect to the way we interact with our programming vendors and broadcasters, we think it is keep that the power of governance not favor one side over the other. what we are working through now is the video regulatory regime which dates back to the cable act of 1990 two. the world is changed quite a bit. the level of competition is very different. media isthat local different. it is time to take a fresh look. we do not have any specific pro--- proposals we are advocating.
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it is time for a renewed look at the overall landscape as it relates to video. they keep and this is fundamental, we think it is critical that any regulation or lack there of keep in mind that we need to be as a device to invest -- incentivized to invest. if we are going to be a world leader in the delivery of high- speed data, the fastest speed, most capable wi-fi access, it is key that the regulatory as opposed fosters to inhibit further investments in our plan. that is a misconception once a plant is built, it is there for the taking. investment needs to be continual year after year. we need to augment the capacity so it is capable of dealing
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with ever-increasing amount of traffic and demand for more speed by our customers. >> would you be in favor of a copper his rewrite of the telecom act but mark -- come permissive -- comprehensive rewrite of the telecom act? >> was and that are reflective of the current environment which is very different from what existed. >> one court case. the verizon trial. is that important to your business? >> of course. regulatory policy and if estimates, the fear is if we regulate our broadband business in a way that is inconsistent with further investment, that would do a tremendous disservice to our business and american
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consumers. yes, we are focused on that. the spectrum of auctions is, the. will time warner be involved? >> will be interested observers. we are focused on improving high-speed data experience. generally speaking a month that comes in couple of different forms. we want to make more speed of global to our customers. we deliver as fast as 50 megabits per second. -- in some areas, 100 megabits. to businesses, we deliver speeds that gets into a --
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arrange. we are keen tos provide our customers with mobility. the way we go about doing that is a diplomate of wi-fi hotspots. the last year, we have deployed 15,000 wi-fi access spots primarily in los angeles and kansas city in new york city. we'll continue to deploy those hotspots so our customers who subscribe have the ability when they are out and about to pop open their laptop or turn on their tablet and have access to network.wi-fi at the same time, we've totnered with many cable have arrangements so a customer wi-ficess comcast hotspots in philadelphia and
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washington dc. a comcast customer travel to l.a. and have access to time warner wi-fi. .e offer over 100,000 hotspots relevant to that is the availability of unlicensed spectrum. a greatery to have wi-fi experience will ultimately be diminished. it is important as part of the overall spectrum process, the auction process. that is something that is important to us and we will be advocating for that. will not be participating in the process to require more spectrum ourselves. we participated in the spectrum auction 66. acrossht collectively
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the u.s.. we sold that spectrum to verizon wireless. we are partnering with verizon to provide their service. that is the way we approach it. but you mentioned one of your areas kansas -- >> you mentioned one of your areas -- kansas city. what is your response to google? >> we treat them as another competitor as we are forced to do. we do what we do win over builder comes in our footprint. in short we have the best products available and we have the best customer service experience available. italy market aggressively as you would expect to ensure that our pricing and package is very competitive. we scratchl matter, our heads a little bit. we cannot is lout the economic theonale -- pencil out
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economic rationale. that is for them to worry about. we have to treat them as a viable competitor. that is where the google situation stands. >> how big is the sports field in l.a.? wewhen we go about ensuring have the content that customers demand, we have multiple ways of accessing that content. we can do business with -- who does business with teams. we tend to have less control over our own destiny where somebody hold them to the deal terms. andhe case of the lakers
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the dodgers, we were able to do deals directly with those teams on economic terms that is better than the alternative of acquiring the content from a third-party. in the case of the lakers, we have launched the network. we are up and running. the inventory those networks. the inventory on those networks. overall, we are confident that the economics are better than the alternative being we tend to take a page out for the dodgers. we are in the early days there. is to aggressively pursue the same strategy we did with the lakers. i have no doubt it will be equally successful. got his degree
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from brown. how did you get into this? law school, i went to a law firm. i was assigned to a matter for time warner. one thing led to another. it's years later, i found myself applying to time warner. investment-grade. >> the president and chief officer of time warner. you are watching "the communicators." >> next, first ladies looks at the life and times of ida mckinley. the ceremony honoring john dingell as the longest-serving member in congressional history.
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the new town action alliance works to six month anniversary >> the story of ida mckinley can be told through an exploration between her husband william mckinley. they spent 30 years together which brought them happiness early on. it changed their life into illness and devotion to shape the presidency at the turn of the new century. joining us tonight to tell the story of ida mckinley are two guests returning to the table, richard norton smith and carl anthony. we are going to start our program with film. this is the first time tha

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