Liberty Global is the second-largest cable TV operator in the world. At PICNIC08 CEO Mike T. Fries was on stage talking about the new interactive European TV viewer, webifying television, and building digital confidence.

Traditional television may be challenged by technology convergence, mobile media and user content, but TV providers shouldn’t try to be like their upcoming competitors. “We consider streaming TV services like Joost or Hulu as product development. They help us to think about how to improve our own service, but we don’t consider them direct competitors,” said Fries.

UPC, the European cable division of Liberty Global, just rolled out a 120 Mbps fiber connection in the Netherlands. It’s the first of its kind in Europe, and according to Mike T. Fries spells out the future of television: A big pipe bringing relevant content to a clear screen.

Relevant content includes advertising focused on the individual user wrapped seamlessly around premium content to be viewed at the leisure of the user, ie. on-demand. In the long run consumers don’t want low-quality content on small screens and will pay for high-quality TV experiences if the content is otherwise good. As an example of a future UPC digital channel Fries tells about Carzone: A video-on-demand channel catering for the auto afficionado with interactive content and non-linear programming.

Ironically, these are the prime characteristics we have come to love when using computer media which Fries wants to be distinctive from. I guess in times of  convergence it’s hard to distinguish competitors from non-competitors… In the end, the ecology of video content outlets will consist of the providers that offer the best content in the most meaningful way. Television will most likely be somewhere along the user preference scale. To be in the top or at the bottom remains a question of…well, what!?

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