Edward T. Holleran Jr., President and COO of Atlantic Broadband, one of the members of the panel
(Maribel Ramos-Weiner, Baltimore). Some of the areas of greatest growth potential for independent cable systems in the US include commercial services, high-speed Internet, the TV Everywhere concept, and more aggressive services packages.The panel discussion titled Cable change artists: Cable Readers discussion panel, was composed of Larry Eby, Senior VP of Operations at New Wave Communications; William Beaty, Jr., Executive VP of TV cable at Comporium Communications; and Edward T. Holleran Jr., President and COO of Atlantic Broadband; and was moderated by Jeff Abbas, President and CEO of NCTC. Discussions revolved around topics like the general improvement of the market and consumers continued interest in new services and more content.Panel members were asked what they considered good, bad and worse about the business. Most agreed the good is that cable offers a platform that best delivers content to its users. The bad continues to be the economy and the worse were the fees being imposed by programmers, in particular the six major groups that may soon become five if the Comcast-NBC Universal merger goes through.In regards to content for mobile applications, Eby indicated that more than providing content for mobile devices, they are focused on offering the support platform for wireless activities.