Light Reading hosted a one-day event yesterday on Cable Next-Gen Video Strategies. While I wasn’t able to make it out to LA for the conference, I’m hoping to hear back soon from a friend who was on the ground. In the meantime, Jeff Baumgartner writes that Mark Cuban’s interview with analyst Alan Breznick was as interesting as a Cuban interview always is. Cuban believes tru2way is a good start for the cable industry, but that it needs to be more open to achieve its full potential.
From everything I’ve heard about the tru2way/OCAP development process, there are realistic limits to how open it can be. Forget the standard itself. The issue is that cable operators have to prioritize the apps they’re going to deploy, at least initially. The good news is that program guides (EPGs) are at the top of that priority list. I predict we’ll see some significant EPG improvements over the next 18 months – a result of both growing tru2way deployments and competition from the telcos.
And speaking of which, take a look at Dave Zatz’s coverage of the latest beta software Verizon is trialing for FiOS TV. It’s bringing Web video to the Motorola set-top.
[...] – DOCSIS 3.0 to Pass 14 Million Homes in 2008 Posted on August 19, 2008 by Mari Silbey I reference the trade publication Light Reading pretty frequently on this blog, but it’s rare that I get access to paid reports from the [...]
[...] same is true with program guides. Although the guide problem isn’t fixed yet, operators have widely acknowledged that it has to be a top priority for them if they want to stay [...]