Broadband innovation and content creation discussed on opening day at The Cable Show

The first day at this year’s Cable Show held two panel discussions: one titled Innovation in broadband, and another focused on the creation of content from the perspective of channels.Innovation in broadband was moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper, with panelists Jim Bankoff of Vox Media, Hosain Rahman of Jawbone, Ali Rowghani of Twitter, Inc., Tom Rutledge of Charter Communications and Steve Shannon of Roku. One of the takeaways of this panel was that social networks such as Twitter complement the TV experience, rather than cannibalize it. Roku’s Steve Shannon indicated that 70% of its customers are cable subscribers. “TV everywhere is a great opportunity,” he added.The other panel was moderated by Variety’s Cynthia Littleton, and included Matthew Blank of Showtime Networks, Joshua Sapan of AMC Networks Inc. and Anne Sweeney of The Walt Disney Company. The panel pointed out they consider all platforms to create content beyond the TV screen. Joshua Sapan said this is the case of AMC Networks: between show seasons the company creates original content for the new seasons or do catch-up TV.Showtime’s Blank said that 80% of its subscribers watch the season’s first episode On Demand a day after the premiere. “On Demand has been incredible for premium services,” he added. Disney’s said that VOD is better.