During the week I went up to London to attend the SCTE Autumn Lecture and the SCTE AGM. This was an interesting and thought provoking day as much for the technology discussed in the lectures, but also for the out of meeting discussions about the current financial situation in the markets. There was a degree of optimism, based primarily on the belief that the press are making so much more of the situation than it was. However there was a view as well that now with this negativity and scaremongering in the press, that it was turning into a self fulfilling prophecy. I would say though that most present were technologists rather big time financiers, so who really sees the future. Now several days later, I can see that it has definitely gotten worse and believe the wider comments that we are looking at a deep period of a full wide ranging recession.
The other area of positivity however was the belief that in the cable industry, there is a degree of financial protection in that as people control their finances and reduce going out that they will see the value in their inhome entertainment through their cable box. My own view is that this recession could be hard enough to cut into the home entertainment industry to cause impact to premium services, and the public will value the basic products so much more. I see a very positive future in the UK platforms that provide good content for the price of the TV license – Freeview and Freesat. Generally I do believe that inhome entertainment is ‘protected’ but not that much. We shall see how this develops.
