Cable's toughest cowboy is saddling up again.<\/p>\n
This year, John Malone's Colorado company, Liberty Media Corp., acquired nearly a third of the stock in Charter Communications, the nation's fourth-largest cable company. <\/p>\n
The move came 14 years after Malone sold Tele-Communications Inc., then the largest cable company in the nation, to focus on international investments. <\/p>\n
Since the Charter deal, Malone considered a key architect of the industry has been vocal about how cable should confront what he believes are its biggest challenges: embracing technology, emphasizing the business of broadband Internet service and controlling programming costs. <\/p>\n
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\"It's almost like he feels with some justification that the industry needs him to come riding back on a white horse to make things right again,\" media analyst Craig Moffett of research firm MoffettNathanson said. <\/p>\n
Cable operators have been losing customers to satellite TV, telephone companies offering video packages and lower-cost Internet streaming services. Cable executives have also been grappling with a generational shift as younger consumers have chosen the Internet over the cable box to watch TV shows and movies. <\/p>\n
Constant battles between programmers such as CBS Corp., Viacom Inc., Walt Disney Co., and 21st Century Fox and cable operators over fees to carry their channels have taken a toll as well. The industry increasingly resembles the current political landscape where \"the moderates have been driven out of business,\" Malone said this month at a Liberty investor conference. <\/p>\n
Malone has said consolidation would improve cable's chances for long-term survival, bring programming costs down and help it keep pace with digital upstarts such as Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. <\/p>\n
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Liberty Media's John Malone addresses cable industry challenges<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cable's toughest cowboy is saddling up again. This year, John Malone's Colorado company, Liberty Media Corp., acquired nearly a third of the stock in Charter Communications, the nation's fourth-largest cable company. The move came 14 years after Malone sold Tele-Communications Inc., then the largest cable company in the nation, to focus on international investments Continue reading