Theorizing the Strategic Architecture of a Broadband Television Industry

Abstract

The emerging broadband environment is pushing forward a new phase of development for the television medium. Just as the introduction of cable television added the multichannel, narrow-casting capability to broadcast television, the arrival of the Internet and the broadband infrastructure brought more enhanced functions such as interactivity and personalization to cable television. This article introduces a strategic architecture that depicts the roles of various channel members and the interrelationships between them in the emerging broadband television industry by incorporating the concepts of value chain and complementary convergence. Contrary to the belief that the broadband industry would present a truly converged system in which firms from the multichannel television and telephone sectors compete in one another's market with bundled services, this article anticipates a broadband market that continues to offer telecommunications and video programming products under two separate interfacing devices and different distribution infrastructures because of the importance of preserving the unique characteristics of each product.