The Change Mariner

Comcast, Disney & The Video On Demand Future

Denver Post:

It's too early to guess the outcome of the hostile takeover bid for the House of Mouse.

Comcast, a company feared and loathed in this market and others as the industry Bigfoot, wants to merge with Disney, the best-known brand in global entertainment. The $54 billion question won't be decided quickly.

It represents a huge leap in the power of cable, once the stepchild of the broadcast industry. And it comes at a time when the public is feeling uneasy about the media monoliths already in place.

Putting aside the financials, the legalities and the management crises that make Disney vulnerable, what's intriguing from the couch-potato perspective is Comcast's focus on a long-awaited technology: video on demand.

"The way people use TV is going to change," Comcast chief Brian Roberts said last week in announcing his intention to form the world's biggest media company. "Consumers want to control what they get, how they get it and when they get it."

Comcast has a gargantuan delivery system, with wires into 21.5 million households. It needs entertainment product to send down those wires.