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Comcast's future
康卡斯特的未來
Thinking outside the set-top box
跳出機頂盒定式
America's largest cable company is becoming more like the firms it is battling against for the attention of couch potatoes
美國最大的電信公司越來越像在為贏得電視迷而戰
WHEN Comcast, America's largest cable operator, took a stake in NBCUniversal in 2009, 30 Rock, a popular NBCU comedy, wove the deal into its plot.
2009年，美國最大的有線電視公司康卡斯特收購了環球影視，后者旗下的情景喜劇《我為喜劇狂》隨后便將這一交易加入劇情。
The programme's characters came under the thumb of a new corporate parent, Kabletown, which introduced innovations like moving customer services to a part ofIndia with no phones in order to provide the same level of service at zero cost.
其情節為片中人物所在公司被名為Kabletown的母公司收購，Kabletown發起了一個向還未進入電話通信時代的印度市場的開拓項目，目的是以零成本向印度用戶提供相同水平的服務。
Comcast employees can take a joke. Last month, at a gathering to celebrate Comcast's 50th anniversary, they showed a clip of the show, to the amusement of the firm's real employees.
康卡斯特的員工們可以此自娛，在上個月公司50周年慶典上，有人播放了這一情節，藉此娛樂公司的真正員工。
A sense of humour is a sign of confidence.
幽默是自信的表現。
Thanks to the 28 billion it spent to acquire NBCU, Comcast is the world's largest media firm, with a market capitalisation of around 128 billion.
出資280億美元收購環球影視，康卡斯特也成了市值近1280億美元的全球最大媒體公司。
NBCU gave Comcast control of a range of new content, including broadcast and cable networks, aHollywoodstudio and a theme-park business.
環球影視將旗下一系列的節目交給了康卡斯特，包括廣播、有線網絡、一個好萊塢攝影室及一座主題公園。
Comcast is also America's most powerful media business, because it controls what people watch and the pipes that deliver it.
同時，康卡斯特也是美國最具影響力的媒體公司，因為它掌控著人們的收視導向及傳播渠道。
In its efforts to retain that position it is having to adapt to the new ways that people want to watch TV and consume entertainment that smaller rivals are pioneering.
人們希望以全新的方式看電視、消遣娛樂，稍小的媒體公司正主導著這一趨勢，為了保住優勢，康卡斯特也在進行新的嘗試。
The cable business has changed dramatically since Ralph Roberts purchased a small cable system inMississippiin 1963.
自1963年拉爾夫?羅伯特在密西西比收購一家小型有線電視系統以來，康卡斯特的有線業務便發生了翻天覆地的變化。
Today his son, Brian, runs a firm operating in a vast and mature business; nearly 86% of American households subscribe to pay-TV.
現如今，子承父業的布萊恩掌管著一家規模更大、業務更成熟的公司：康卡斯特占據著美國付費電視業務近86%的市場份額。
This has forced Comcast and other cable firms to increase revenues by raising prices rather than by chasing new viewers.
這也使得康卡斯特及其他有線電視公司通過增加收費，而非拓展新用戶的方式來實現增收。
But not every viewer will tolerate high prices.
但是，并非所有用戶都能容忍高價。
The proportion of households with pay-TV has fallen slightly since 2010 as some have cut the cord.
2010年以來，付費電視用戶比例已出現小幅下滑現象，部分用戶已經減掉線纜。
Comcast now has 21.6m subscribers, 1.6% fewer than a year ago.
現在，康卡斯特的有線電視用戶為2160萬，比去年低1.6個百分點。
As well as cord-cutters Comcast and other cable providers must defend their turf from a pack of new entrants.
除了減掉有線電視的用戶外，康卡斯特及其他有線電視運營商還需要面臨新的競爭，
These include telecoms firms such as Verizon and AT&T, which offer pay-TV and fast broadband, and firms that stream video over the internet, such as Netflix and Amazon.
其中包括像威瑞森及AT&T這樣的電信巨頭提供的付費電視、高速寬帶業務，還有奈飛、亞馬遜公司在網絡上提供的流媒體視頻。
These companies have not killed cable, but they have helped to shape the way people want to watch programmes: increasingly, on mobile devices and at a time of their choosing.
這些公司尚未將有線電視逼上絕路。但卻已經改變了人們觀看節目的渠道，奈飛公司在年輕人中間很受歡迎。
Netflix is popular with the young. Around 20% of households headed by people under 25 do not have a television but watch programmes on other devices, such as laptops and tablets.
25歲以下年輕人組建的家庭中大約20%沒有電視機，他們通過筆記本、平板電腦等其他設備收看電視節目。
If Netflix were a cable channel, its subscription revenues in 2013 would put it third inAmerica behind ESPN and HBO, according to MoffettNathanson, a research firm.
根據一家名為MoffettNathanson的調查公司提供的數據顯示，如果奈飛是一家有線電視臺，其2013年的訂購收入可緊跟ESPN、HBO，位居第三。
Comcast has responded by trying to resemble the firms that could unseat it, offering more interactivity, personalisation and portability.
對于那些威脅到自己的競爭對手，康卡斯特的應對策略是向用戶提供互動性更強、更具人性化、更加便攜化的服務。
Television is going to change more in the next five years than it has in the last 50, says Brian Roberts.
布萊恩?羅伯茨表示：電視在未來五年的變化會比過去五十年的變化還大。
Comcast executives talk about apps for the television and rolling out innovations every three to six months.
此外，他還談到了電視應用及每三到六個月便會更新的問題。
The firm is paying particular attention to its user interface, or what, until recently, was called a TV guide.
康卡斯特非常注意用戶界面的設計，或者最近被稱之為電視指南的東西。
Comcast's is now arranged not numerically by channel, but alphabetically by programme, by network and type of content.
現在，康卡斯特并不是按照數字排列頻道，而是按照字母順序、網絡和內容分類。
Couch potatoes even less inclined to effort can download an app to their iPhone and shout commands at it to locate shows.
電視迷可以不假思索便可將應用下載到自己的iPhone，并可通過語音找到相應節目。
Comcast's new set-top box is cloud-based, adding to the potential for flexibility: films and programmes stored in the cloud can be watched on any device.
康卡斯特的新機頂盒云基站為用戶提供了更為靈活的選擇：
It tracks viewing history and recommends programmes accordingly, much like Netflix.
存儲在云基站的電影或節目可以在任何設備上觀看，同奈飛相似的是該設備還會根據觀看歷史推薦相關節目。
Comcast has made it easier for TV-watchers to find their way to full seasons of episodes that are available on-demand so people can binge on shows.
康卡斯特讓電視觀眾更容易找到電視上供點播的整部電視劇，這樣用戶便可盡情享受節目了。
Other pay-TV providers are experimenting with new features, and some have approached Comcast to license its technology.
其他的付費電視供應商正試用一些新特性，部分已經接近康卡斯特，獲得技術許可。
One popular idea is TV Everywhere, which makes it possible for pay-TV subscribers to watch live and on-demand programmes on their mobile devices wherever they like.
在那些新特性中，電視無處不在的理念比較流行，該創意可讓訂購付費電視的用戶隨時隨地觀看直播、或者點播節目。
It has started slowly but is taking off as more content-owners agree to license the digital rights to their programmes.
這一設想雖然進展緩慢，但已經起步，越來越多的節目供應商同意向相關運營商頒發數字權限。
Tools like this may help Comcast and its rivals justify their high prices and convince people to stick with their television package.
這樣的功能也讓用戶覺得康卡斯特及其競爭對手的高收費物有所值，也讓人們有理由繼續使用他們提供的電視程序。
Giving customers more products to keep them around for longer is an old tactic.
為了長久留住顧客，向他們提供更多產品是一個老套的策略。
Cable companies have long offered bundles of broadband, television and phone line.
有線電視公司很早便開始想用戶提供寬帶、電視、電話三線合一的服務，
Comcast is going much further with its home-services business, which includes alarm systems, baby monitoring and temperature control.
而康卡斯特準備進一步綜合家庭服務，該服務將涵蓋報警系統、嬰兒監視器及溫度控制。
And it is bringing in partners.
康卡斯特還同其他公司展開合作，
In October Comcast teamed up with Twitter to allow its subscribers to find or record programmes that are being tweeted about.
10月康卡斯特同推特強強聯手，他們推出了一項可以讓訂購其電視節目的用戶查找、記錄推特用戶推文中的節目。
Like its competitors it is also testing smaller, cheaper packages of television channels and broadband, to appeal to cost-conscious youngsters.
同其競爭對手一樣，康卡斯特也在測試更小、更為廉價的電視頻道和寬帶節目，以迎合節約的年輕群體。
The greatest change for Comcast is the reorientation of its business towards broadband.
康卡斯特最大的變化非寬帶業務再定位莫屬，
By next year Comcast may well have more subscribers to its broadband services than for television.
明年康卡斯特寬帶服務用戶或許會超過其電視服務用戶。
Those who eschew pay-TV will still need an internet package, and cable could pick up customers from satellite operators, whose internet speeds are slower.
那些拋棄付費電視的用戶仍舊需要使用網絡，有線網絡可以從衛星運營商那里搶回部分用戶，畢竟后者的網速更慢。
Ironically content going to the internet gives cable companies that monopoly power back to a certain extent,
巴克萊銀行的分析師康南·文卡特斯瓦爾表示：極具諷刺意味的是轉入網絡的節目讓有線電視公司可以在一定程度上進行壟斷，
because you don't have competition in broadband to the extent you have it in video, says Kannan Venkateshwar of Barclays, a bank. Comcast and other cable companies are experimenting more with usage-based pricing, charging more for heavy data consumption.
因為他們在寬帶業務方面沒了競爭對手，而在視頻方面卻有了。康卡斯特及其他有線電視公司正越來越多的嘗試基于使用的付費方式，使用數據更多的用戶需要支付更多費用。
Mr Roberts has always had big ambitions and an appetite for deals.
羅伯特總是雄心勃勃、擴張欲望強烈。
In 2004, two years after he became boss of Comcast, he launched an unsuccessful 66 billion hostile bid for Disney.
2004年，羅伯特接任康卡斯特兩年后便發起了對迪斯尼的惡意收購，但并未能如愿。
The deal with NBCU pushed Comcast to a new level in size and clout, at a time when most media companies were slimming down to focus on what they did best.
收購環球影視時正值大部分媒體公司縮小規模、聚力做精之際，完成收購后康卡斯特的規模及影響力達到了更高的水平。
Time Warner, a content firm, has spun off Time Warner Cable; next year it will do the same with Time Inc, its magazines business.
其競爭對手時代華納公司出售了時代華納有線公司，明年還會出售做雜志業務的時代出版集團。
The hunger games
饑餓游戲
Even Comcast's few critics acknowledge that the firm secured an excellent price and favourable terms for NBCU. The rationale was that adding content would provide a hedge to Comcast's core cable business.
即便康卡斯特沒有人批評公司收購環球影視，畢竟這筆交易價格合理、條件有利，但關鍵在于繼續收購會為康卡斯特的核心業務，即有線電視業務產生不利影響。
But few feel that there have been any significant benefits from content and distribution sharing a parent.
但是，沒有人注意到共享一個母公司的兩家子公司在業務內容及資源分配上會產生積極的作用。
I would be just as happy if they had not bought NBCU, says one Comcast shareholder.
康卡斯特的一位股東說道：很高興他們收購了環球影視公司。
He might be happier to hear rumours that Comcast has hired a bank to advise it on a possible bid for TWC,America's second-biggest cable operator.
如果聽到了康卡斯特已經聘請某銀行，估算競標美國第二大有線電視運營商，即時代華納有限公司可行性的謠言，他可能會更高興。
This would give Comcast 34% of the American market. Scale can help cable firms compete with rival pay-TV services, and give more leverage in negotiations with content-providers, which continue to raise the cost of carrying their programmes.
如果競標成功，康卡斯特將會占據美國有線電視市場34%的份額，規?；б嬗欣诳悼ㄋ固赝渌顿M電視公司競爭，并且還能增加同節目供應商談判的籌碼，后者仍在為自己的產品加價。
That's why Liberty Global, a rival cable company, has its eye on TWC too.
這也是其競爭對手自有媒體公司同樣有意競標時代華納有線公司的原因，自有媒體還投資了Charter通訊公司，后者也有意同時代華納有線公司合并。
It has taken a stake in Charter, another cable operator keen to merge with TWC. Comcast is saying nothing about a deal, and some ask whether regulators would even allow it.
康卡斯特對于此次交易只字未提，有人會問監管部門是否會運行這筆收購。
30 Rock has already concluded its final season.
《我為喜劇狂》已經完季，
Who will mock Comcast, if Kabletown becomes Kablecountry?
誰來繼續借此調侃自娛呢？如果Kabletown擴張成為Kablecountry，
