NCTA: Cablevision exec says Verizon not competitive

ATLANTA -- Cablevision is taking much more business away from Verizon than it is losing, Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge said today.

In a panel discussion at the National Cable & Telecommunications Associate show here, Rutledge claimed Verizon is achieving only 2% penetration of its high-speed data services where it has deployed FiOS fiber-to-the-premises technology on Cablevision turf in New York.

"We think that's about their employee count," he joked. By contrast, Rutledge said, Cablevision is increasing its voice-over-IP sales by 10% monthly.

"The volume of business we are taking from them is so much greater than what they are even projecting to take from us," he said. "It's an uneconomic proposition on their part."

A Verizon spokeswoman said that Verizon does not release its penetration figures, but that Cablevision's numbers are not accurate. "If you look at what they're doing instead of what they're saying, it's clear they do see us as a strong competitor because they are fighting us on every front," she said.

Concerns about telco entry into video and the prospect of video over the Internet are serving to keep cable TV stock prices down, Rutledge and Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt admitted during the morning CEO panel discussion.

"New media is an opportunity for us, not a risk," Rutledge said. "It is an addition to our industry, not a subtraction."

One new Cablevision service, network-based DVR, is under scrutiny by content providers, who want to determine if it amounts to a video-on-demand service.

David Zaslav, president of NBC Universal Cable, said attorneys are currently looking at the service, which stores video at the headend, to determine whether it is a legal use of content under current agreements.