The Future of Cable Business Services -- Business services are still a critical growth engine for US cable operators, but the challenge ahead is to seek out and discover new services and opportunities that will keep that engine revved.

Still, commercial services focused on small and midsized businesses and, increasingly to the enterprise level, are pulling their weight as cable operators continue to focus on areas that can offset the ongoing erosion of pay-TV subscribers.

The US cable industry is poised to pull down $18 billion in business services revenue in 2018, and possibly reach $20 billion toward the end of 2019, Alan Breznick, cable/video practice leader at Light Reading, said here Thursday during his opening remarks.

To put that in some perspective, US cable was generating in the range of $2 billion to $3 billion in 2007, the first year that Light Reading hosted this event, drawing cable operators, key suppliers and, yes, some very local business owners. (See Cable Means Business and 'Ugly George'.)