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Content Abdicated, as Consumers take Throne

CNET reports that during a two-hour keynote session, CEOs from Verizon Communications, Disney, Time Warner Cable and NTT told a packed audience at the TelecomNext trade show in Las Vegas that the future of telecom lies in the hands of consumers who nowadays have more choices when it comes to the content and services they subscribe to and how they use them.

"We're seeing a great shift in how consumers spend money, and our business models need to be flexible," said Robert Iger, CEO of Disney. "It used to be said that content was king, but the consumer is king."

Aside from piracy and overregulation, other challenges await content providers, said Dick Wolf, the creator of the popular "Law and Order" television shows. He said that the current business model in television likely won't work in 10 years, when people likely will be downloading more shows directly from the Web.

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