Building the Cable Company of the Future

Looking Ahead Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is assembling Web assets to keep his audience from straying from cable TV.

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Comcast's online moves serve another goal, of course: keeping its cable customers. That part of the business generates $28 billion in annual revenues. Roberts and Banse see cable as something that's only enhanced, not replaced, by Internet video. "People are investing in their TVs," Banse says. "They're buying huge screens, high-def, and surround sound."

Comcast has significant cost advantages over competitors because it can optimize video over its cable infrastructure without having to pay extra, which it would have to do if it used the public Internet. That should let it deliver longer and higher-quality video at a lower price than, say, YouTube. "They are better positioned to dominate the digital connectivity to consumers than Google or Microsoft," contends Mark Cuban, chairman of the cable network HDNet, in an email. "But they won't get there unless they create programs that encourage entrepreneurs to develop for Comcast Web sites and networks."

The early signals seem promising. Fearnet, for example, is the product of a relationship with video startup Guba. Roberts, while attesting that Comcast will open itself up and won't be a closed network, believes his high-speed bet pays off whether people use his apps or someone else's. That's why music-sharing technologies benefited Comcast. "Anything that helps spur innovation, helps us," he says. "It's sort of heads we win, tails we win."