Speaking at investor conference yesterday in New York, Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis said it was unlikely that Comcast would invest more money in 4G partner Clearwire.
According to a blog on The Wall Street Journal, Angelakis said Clearwire needs to figure out its strategic direction. Time Warner Cable and Comcast have been re-branding their 4G services that they offer through Clearwire, but Clearwire has come under fire for not having the service more widely available even in the large metro areas where it has been deployed.
“Clearwire has to figure this out,” said Angelakis said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference.
Last month Clearwire introduced a “pay as you go” 4G mobile broadband service.
Sprint-Nextel owns almost 54 percent of Clearwire, while Comcast has a 9 percent stake. Intel, Google, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks also own stakes in Clearwire.
According to a story on ZDnet.com, Angelakis also said that Comcast was going to re-launch its TV Everywhere service, which was officially launched in beta form late last year and branded Fancast Xfinity at the start of this year.
The new brand name for Comcast’s TV Everywhere service, starting next month, will be Xfinity Online TV, according to ZDnet.com and other media reports. The new name will mark the third time Comcast has changed the name for the service after starting out with On Demand Online and then Fancast Xfinity.
Angelakis characterized Comcast’s TV Everywhere service as more of an offensive move instead of a defensive position against over-the-top video provdiers. He said the goal of the re-launch was to provide Comcast customers with the content they want—whether it’s linear, VOD, online or possibly wireless—wherever they are. Angelakis didn’t say if Comcast would offer an online service for non-subscribers.
He also said he didn’t see evidence of cord-cutting by subscribers who are opting to drop their cable services in favor of online offerings from other providers. Angelakis said that cord cutting was more of a threat to its VOD business and not to Comcast’s core business.
Comcast has seen a drop in its basic video subscribers over the past several quarters.