Defining Targeted Advertising

Likely one of the hottest topics at this year’s Cable Show will be advanced advertising applications, and before the flood of news and analysis starts it would be nice to have some clear terminology as a reference point. Below are some of the key terms as I understand them.
Targeted Advertising: Advertising that is created [...]

Is it Cheaper to Go All-Digital, All-HD and All-Switched?

A participant on the NCTA’s switched digital video (SDV) briefing call last week asked why the cable industry isn’t moving more quickly to all-digital broadcast given the bandwidth savings. Verizon’s making the shift, why not traditional cable operators? The answer is that cable companies as a whole have a lot more existing analog customers, and [...]

The NCTA on Switched Digital Video and CableCARDs

The NCTA conducted an interesting form of outreach last week. After apparently reading a number of unflattering and possibly inaccurate reports on switched digital video’s impact on CableCARD retail devices, the association put out the word that it would conduct a conference call briefing for any bloggers and journalists interested in discussing the topic. The [...]

J:COM Puts Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 Modems in Homes Starting TODAY

In a serendipitous moment, I had a call this morning to talk about DOCSIS 3.0 CPE updates, and I learned that J:COM in Japan has completed trials and is starting to install Motorola’s channel-bonding modems in subscriber homes TODAY. The latest status reports from the lab have found no issues with the SB6120 modems, and [...]

Femtocells – Region by Region

As referenced yesterday, I sat down with a Motorola exec recently to get an update on the femtocell market. One of my big takeaways from the conversation was that the market varies widely from region to region. That shouldn’t be a surprise given the landscape of the mobile industry, but still the differences were far [...]

2008 – The Year of the Femtocell?

I got fantastic input on femtocells the other day and am still looking for the time to write up everything I learned. As a teaser, I heard that every major operator in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) is currently holding some kind of femtocell trial. North America is not on the same timeline, [...]

New Motorola VDSL2 Gateways for Broadband and IPTV

Timed to coincide with a Motorola customer event in San Diego this week, Motorola announced today the availability of its new line of VDSL2 gateways. We saw a sample gateway back at CES, but three versions of the product have now been officially released into the wild. The line of gateways is called the Motorola [...]

Comcast Goes Multi-Room

Last week Comcast introduced a new service called AnyRoom in its New Jersey market designed to let multiple set-tops in a home access the same VOD content. It’s not multi-room DVR, but it’s a good step on the road to cable-based, in-home television networking.
First the basics: Users of the AnyRoom feature can make a selection [...]

Motorola Tuning Resolver Flies through CableLabs Interop

I’ve gotten more than few friendly nudges lately for an update on the switched digital video (SDV) tuning resolver. The Motorola device is now officially called the MTR700 and it just came through a CableLabs interop with flying colors. Next the product will be submitted to CableLabs’ Cert Wave 60, and then it will be [...]

Latest Internet Video Stats – ISP Sites in the Top Ten

ComScore has new Internet video stats for the month of February. Online video viewing was up 66% over the same time last year, adding up to a monthly total of 10.1 billion videos screened on the Web. Interestingly, both Time Warner sites (excluding AOL) and Comcast’s Fancast portal scored in ComScore’s top-ten list. Fancast was [...]