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Tidbits: RS-DVR, Targeted Advertising, and More on WiMAX

Wondering what to pay attention to in the world of broadband this week? Here are a few stories that have caught my eye.
Remote Storage DVR Gets a Green Light
Several pubs this week have covered the fact that cable operators now have the legal go-ahead to implement remote-storage DVR. This court saga began back in 2007 [...]

CableLabs Brings On New Advanced Advertising Specs

For those of you who aren’t following an RSS feed of CableLabs press releases, the organization has just announced a new set of advanced advertising specifications. They go the by the unwieldy title of Stewardship and Fulfillment Interfaces, or the much easier SaFI for short.
SaFI consists of  standards for sharing information contained in advanced advertising [...]

Details on On Demand Online, aka TV Everywhere

Comcast and Time Warner held a joint press conference today to announce details around the On Demand Online initiative. Specifically, Comcast will begin a trial next month to test out its authentication system and gather feedback on the new video service. Here are the deets as we now know them:

The trial will include roughly 5,000 [...]

On-Demand Viewing Up – More Content Helps

I’ve heard a number of individual operators talk about increases in on-demand video views, but last week Rentrak put out a snapshot report of VOD growth across the industry. According to Rentrak, VOD usage was up 21% in 2008 as compared to 2007.
There’s no higher math required in the VOD adoption equation. More content = [...]

New AT&T U-Verse Features

Image courtesy of user txskeets on the U-talk forum
Tracy Swedlow (of itvt fame) has details this week on new features for the AT&T U-verse service. The upgrades are happening now, and limited feedback on various U-verse forums is already rolling in. Subscriber comments are mostly positive, with the exception of one complaint about an audio [...]

VOD: What Works and What Doesn’t

While some of yesterday’s On Demand Summit was focused on the technical aspects of video on demand, much of it centered on business models and how VOD is being executed today. At times the mood was upbeat, with panelists citing statistics on VOD’s significant growth in recent years and its revenue potential. At other times, [...]

VOD Ingest, Storage, and Intelligence

There are a few themes becoming apparent during today’s On Demand Summit in Philadelphia, and one is the need to improve on-demand infrastructure. People agree that demands on VOD networks have changed, as has the competitive landscape for video delivery. From a purely technical standpoint, this means the networks must evolve with greater ingest and [...]

New Movie Tuesday on VOD

UPDATED: It used to take a good year or more for new releases to hit the local video rental store, but over the decades, that window of time has gradually lessened, until now it seems a movie has barely left the theater before it’s out on disc. At the same time, cable and telco operators [...]

Fancast Online… and On TV?

Here’s an interesting little tidbit. While trolling through Comcast’s VOD guide, I clicked on a category I’ve never noticed before called “The Cutting Edge”. That led me to a sub-menu with Sci-Fi, gaming, and anime choices, as well as a button labeled “Fancast”. Since Fancast is Comcast’s online portal for video, I was curious why [...]

Top Cablecos to Debut Online, On-Demand Shows in 2009

In recognition of the need to bridge the gap to the Internet, both Comcast and Time Warner Cable have now said they will make select programming available online to TV subscribers in the second half of this year. Comcast’s Karin Gilford promised as much in a recent interview with NewTeeVee about the upcoming “On Demand [...]