Gaspin's cable empire operating margin (that is, Ebitda) last year dwarfed that of the broadcast network, 45% to 7%, according to research firm SNL Kagan.
For the moment only a few cable companies operating in the European Union offer Internet access, but this option is certain to grow, Sarkar said.
He visits network operating centers, finds fiber cable landings, watches a transatlantic cable being brought ashore, visits the bowels of data centers and network rooms to see the racks of routers, servers and pulsing fiber.
The cable billing runs an operating margin (net before depreciation, interest and taxes, as a percent of sales) of 11%, versus 30% for fund servicing.
Rob Marcus, Time Warner Cable's chief operating officer, said on an earnings call last week that Verizon FiOS had been "tough competitors" in New York and said Time Warner Cable was ready to match Verizon's aggressive marketing of the service.
Specific to set-top boxes, Sony has announced a product dubbed Passage, which is a operating system that can link with any cable operator.
They sold off Time Warner, which has shot up 25% in recent months on encouraging operating news out of AOL and its cable TV division.
Traditionally, sales have covered the interconnector's operating costs, but that has changed since the cable started to malfunction.
While broadcasting remained more or less flat, cable networks saw good growth in revenues and operating income.
In early November, cable bosses rejected the idea of a single operating system and decided to leave individual companies to make their own deals.
Kevin Hause, who tracks interactive business for IDC, thinks that it is too soon to say whether Sun will be able to dominate the cable set-top box market, as cable operators are hedging their bets on various operating systems.
Also on that day, its co-chief operating officer, Peter Boylan , who was in charge of negotiating with cable operators, resigned abruptly.
On Wednesday the New York-based media conglomerate said an impairment charge for its cable, publishing and AOL units would result in a fourth-quarter operating loss.
Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, who said last month that if Aereo gets a legal OK to keep operating, he would consider changing the Fox network to a channel available only through cable and satellite TV services.
It promised the cable companies that the future would be theirs if they allowed Microsoft to build the operating system that went inside the set-top boxes.
In its most recent annual report on mobile competition, the FCC described consumer mobile services as being shaped by an increasingly dynamic ecosystem, which includes not only the carriers but also handset manufacturers, operating systems developers, app providers and competition among broadband providers offering different technologies, including mobile, fiber, cable, and satellite networks.
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