Can the NFL pull it off? Don’t bet against the country’s most powerful and popular league, says cable TV expert Jimmy Schaeffler, a senior analyst with the Carmel Group consultancy. “They don’t have leverage with individual operators, but they have leverage where it counts the most. With consumers. Who else gets in so many homes in less than three years? They’re a one-of-kind entity.”

Digital services let cable operators better compete with satellite TV and soon, phone companies, said Jimmy Schaeffler, an analyst with The Carmel Group, a market research firm in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif. Another reason why digital is alluring to cable: “It’s hugely more profitable,” Schaeffler said. Fees for advanced services can inflate a basic subscriber’s bill by 30% to 40% or more. “If you’re paying $40, it could be $60 to $70 or higher,” Schaeffler said.
So they’ve also started to simulcast the same channels in analog and digital signals. The goal is to “wean” customers away from analog into digital, Schaeffler said. “We’re in a digital world. Period,” Schaeffler said. Cable companies are “moving the technology forward and they are making consumers move with them.

’’Many people can’t get DSL and cable where they are and satellite provides them with that option,’’ said Sean Badding of the market research firm The Carmel Group. ‘’It’s very, very attractive right now for people in rural areas.” The Carmel Group estimates that satellite service will capture 10% of the U.S. high-speed Internet market by 2005, with more than 3 million subscribers. Satellite Internet access ready to take off

Those plans could spur the cable and phone rollout of broadband Internet service, says Sean Badding, an analyst for the Carmel Group. “This is essentially a boon for consumers. Eventually, it will create a competitive environment in the broadband world.”