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DigitalStraighttalk is currently on hiatus during a transition in support for the blog. In the interim, if you have any questions or concerns about the blog, please contact David.Grabert@Cox.com
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Posted at 01:47 PM on April 09, 2008
Taking Care of Business
Residential services remain at the heart of the cable industry, but let’s not forget that business represents a significant growth opportunity as customers demand enterprise-class local service and support to meet their specific needs.
As Jim Barthold reported in Communications Technology last week (http://www.cable360.net/ct/news/ctreports/27960.html), the people at Cox are, indeed, Taking Care of Business.
This month, three premiere events took place in the Phoenix area: the Super Bowl, the FBR Open (the largest PGA tournament each season with more than 530,000 fans) and the Barrett Jackson Collector Car Event (280,000 attendees, including Jay Leno, Muhammad Ali, Patrick Dempsey and other celebrities, 1163 vehicles, $88 million in cars sales). The massive voice, video and data infrastructure and services engineered to support these events were provided by Cox Business, not the local telco.
Vertical Systems Group recently announced that Cox Business continues to lead the country as the fourth largest provider of Ethernet services, the high-speed data networking connection of choice for businesses. This puts Cox Business, with 10 percent market share, ahead of all cable providers and several other telcos.
Many of the discussions that we have in the cable industry involve the residential market, and rightly so, given cable’s history of delivering home entertainment services across the U.S. However, it is important to recognize that cable providers deliver competitive voice, data and video services to businesses of all sizes as well. Many of these businesses seek solutions from cable as an alternative to the telcos and quickly realize that residential is not the only place where Cox is a trusted provider.
Posted at 04:52 PM on February 14, 2008
Video Universe Growing?
A new report from BernsteinResearch includes some interesting stats from Massachusetts, where Verizon is delivering its FiOS video service in several communities.
We draw two conclusions from the [Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable] data. First, the data broadly confirms the obvious; Verizon's FiOS is, as expected, gaining traction and share. Second, the results belie the consensus expectation that Verizon's gains will inevitably mean steep losses for cable incumbents.
Thre report notes that Verizon’s 2007 gain in the Massachusetts communities was far larger than Comcast’s losses.
This counter-intuitive observation reflects the manner in which cable subscriber growth has remained essentially flat even while new entrants (the DBS providers) have, over the last fifteen years, grown to 33M subscribers: industry growth and, to a lesser extent, loss of share by smaller providers.… The result runs contrary to expectations about TelCo entry into the TV market, but are consistent with broader themes of limited TelCo overlap: Verizon FiOS will be available to just 16 to 17% of Comcast subscribers by the time Verizon completes construction of the FiOS network in 2010/2011; and continued (even modest) industry growth. The net effect on the cable industry is a loss of share – but a relatively steady subscriber count over the period.
Posted at 09:11 AM on February 06, 2008 | Comments
As the Writers Strike Moves Into Week #12
Fellow un-scripted cable programming fans... it’s time! It’s time to let the world know that you did, in fact, stay up until 1 AM watching MTV’s Run’s House marathon last Tuesday. It’s time to admit you always think the well-meaning couple should have gone with house number one in HGTV’s House Hunters. It’s time to stand up and say “Yes, I’m addicted to E!’s The Girls Next Door!”
But why the sudden emphasis on the shows we’ve been watching on cable programming? With production halted on many broadcast primetime-favorites due to contract disagreements between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), television viewers are looking beyond the “Big 3” broadcast networks for entertaining programming options.
Posted at 11:00 AM on January 24, 2008 | Comments
CES Wrap-UP
There was plenty of news concerning television and cable networks at CES this year, as there was a clear new emphasis on content and programming. But outside of the cable arena, there were several other trends that revealed themselves in consumer electronics. From a new focus on “green” technologies, to the electronic crusade to the car, to what may finally be the end of the war between Blu-Ray and HD DVD, CES 2008 will be one that may be remembered for influencing the electronics industry for years to come.
Posted at 09:47 AM on January 14, 2008 | Comments
Cox Savings Creature Embraces MySpace Community
The affectionate mound of money featured in recent Cox Digital Phone advertisements now has a personal MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/billythesavingscreature. Billy the Savings Creature’s vocal capabilities are limited to chirps and giggles so MySpace provides an ideal way for him to make friends. In addition to his role on Cox television spots, Billy has a 2008 calendar and his ads are featured on YouTube.
Posted at 11:28 AM on January 10, 2008 | Comments
CES: What Looks Worse Than a House with A Dish?
... a tradeshow booth with a Dish!
Posted at 05:32 PM on January 09, 2008 | Comments
CES: You Can't Be Too Wide Nor Too Thin
It's hard to ignore the TVs that are on display at CES, and until now I've been doing just that. However, there is some big news regarding television technology that debuted at CES this year. It's my final day on the show floor, and today I'm focusing on doing some technology wrap-ups.
The biggest news, literally, is the 11-foot, plasma prototype that joined Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto onstage for his keynote address Monday. Later, after seeing it in the Panasonic booth, it was clear that whatever was playing on the screen was hardly suitable for such a massive display. At a resolution of 4x 1080p, it's a very stunning display. Last year, Panasonic displayed a retail 103-inch plasma display. Since, they've managed to sell over 3,000 of the 103-inchers, at a price of $51,000 each.
Posted at 05:21 PM on January 09, 2008 | Comments
CES: tru2way Emerges on the Show Floor as Well as the Stage
Panasonic isn't the only company showing off its new tru2way-capable products; a quick trip around the show floor at CES along with a little bit of searching revealed many new components that are very close to hitting store shelves.
LG and Samsung each had a couple of televisions on display, all in the 40-57" range, much like Panasonic's offerings. Finding them proved to be a bit of a challenge, however, as none of the associates in the booths seemed to know anything about tru2way or OCAP. This is not completely unexepected at a show prone to 11th-hour announcements of emerging technologies.
The TV Guide booth had a display of its j-Guide, a rich java-based display that conforms to the OCAP standard. TV Guide also seems in need of the memo, as all of their signage still referred to Open Cable, rather than the rebranded tru2way.
On hand at Microsoft was a CableCard equipped device that interfaces with Media Center PCs. No tru2way capability was on-hand, but the associates were aware of the recent announcement and said products were currently in development.
by Tony Brown, a junior at the University of Missouri
Posted at 10:02 AM on January 09, 2008 | Comments
CES: Roberts Presents Cable's New Vision
Brian Roberts, CEO and President of Comcast, took the stage yesterday in the first keynote address to the assembly from a cable company chief in the entire 41-year history of the CES. Riding on the coattails of Monday's keynote by Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto in which the Roberts made a cameo to announce new tru2way devices, Roberts' Tuesday speech highlighted Comcast’s plans for implementation of DOCSIS 3.0 and delivery of more HD content.
"The age of the closed, proprietary set-top box is behind us," said Roberts, who, like others, says open source development must be a priority for the electronics industry. The new tru2way technology will allow consumers to go to a retail store, purchase a new component such as a DVR or set-top, bring it home and plug it in, "and expect it to support all cable interactive services," Roberts said. He reminded the audience that the cable industry learned a great deal about how open-source stimulates innovation and consumer adoption with the development of the cable modem, based on the old DOCSIS standards.
Posted at 09:53 AM on January 09, 2008 | Comments
CES: Panasonic and Comcast Announce New tru2way Products
Yesterday morning's CES keynote with Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto brought big news to the world of cable with the announcement of Panasonic's new line of HDTVs and set-top boxes integrating tru2way technology. Joined onstage by Comcast's CEO, Brian Roberts, Sakamoto said, "Panasonic will not only deliver a Panasonic Viera Plasma HDTV with tru2way technology later this year, we are also announcing the first portable DVR and digital cable set-top boxes powered by tru2way technology, all of which truly allow consumers to maximize their enjoyment of digital cable television programming.”
The Viera televisions equipped with tru2way will eliminate the need for a set-top box and will eliminate clutter and confusion that stems from multiple components. The Viera Plasma HDTV is expected to be available at retail later this year.
Also announced was a portable DVR which will allow users to record programs at home and then watch them later, acting like a portable DVD player. The tru2way device has a fold-up 8.5" screen and speakers, and docks with a set-top box. Named the AnyPlay, it is expected in Comcast markets in early 2009.
I personally like the idea of the portable DVR, though I doubt people will choose a large portable DVD player-type device over the smaller pocket-sized digital media players they most likely already own. However, it's not hard to imagine the technology spurring a new movement in bridging the gap between those smaller media players and the home DVR.
by Tony Brown, a junior at the University of Missouri
Posted at 02:20 PM on January 08, 2008 | Comments
CES: Open Source Development = CE Harmony = Consumer Satisfaction
Talk of open development was a hot topic today, with everyone from Jerry Yang of Yahoo! and Rob Stoddard of NCTA to the editors of CNET calling open source development and new industry standards the keys to creating more useful and marketable consumer electronics.
Yang’s keynote address highlighted the release of Yahoo! Go 3.0, the site’s software offering for mobile phones. In it, he explained that leaving Yahoo! Go open sourced was imperative to the continued development of the software. “Having the ability for third party software to interact with Yahoo! Go makes it easier for users to receive relevant content,” Yang said.
Yahoo! Go offers widgets to perform many different tasks, including eBay, MySpace, and MTV News integration. The hope is that software developers and other websites will develop software to work with Yahoo! Go and ultimately make the Internet more efficient and useful to consumers on mobile phones.
In a CNET-hosted panel titled “The Next Big Thing in CE,” Stoddard, along with George Kliavkoff of NBCU agreed that open-sourcing and creation of (and conforming to) industry standards would allow consumers to integrate different technology components with ease. In a discussion about the future of content delivery, both agreed that portable devices must be able to connect to televisions, computers, and DVR set-tops and share content without limitation. One of the major current limitations of programming that is available online is that it is unable to be transferred to mobile devices, they said.
by Tony Brown, a junior at the University of Missouri
Posted at 10:57 AM on January 08, 2008 | Comments
CES Preview: Social Entertainment in the Next Digital Decade
Bill Gates officially launched CES 2008 with a Guitar Hero duel against Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash, yet attendees were most likely more impressed with the product demos in the Microsoft front man’s keynote address. In his final of eight consecutive CES introductions, Gates spoke about how content and software will define what he calls “the Next Digital Decade,” and showed off new levels of device interconnectivity and user-centric experiences that always seemed to be just over the horizon. Yet suddenly they’ve arrived.
I came into this year’s show expecting Sync, the Ford Motors and Microsoft partnership in mobile integration, to be the buzz on the floor and a major part of Gates’ address. However, the Sync demonstration was merely a thread of Microsoft’s envisioned blanket of interactive interfaces and entertainment devices. From the web-based Silverlight interface that will help NBC provide the “most most comprehensive broadband coverage of any event, ever” during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, to the continued development of the Xbox 360 platform as a central device in home entertainment and content delivery, Microsoft seems to have all bases covered.
Posted at 10:36 AM on January 07, 2008 | Comments
Correcting My Online Errors
I knew I should have paid more attention in typing class. It seems like I’m always getting "fat fingers" and typing the wrong thing in the Internet Explorer address bar. www.cox.com usually ends up www.cox.con and so on. The good thing is that my Internet service catches these mistakes and sends me in the right direction.
Cox calls this Enhanced Error Results – but not everyone likes it. Some argue that it interferes with their Internet experience. Here’s how it works: when you type in a misspelled Web address or simply a keyword in your browser bar, the network attempts to find what you’re looking for online, but if the information you typed is not resolveable to a valid URL, you see a results page with choices. More often than not, the Web site you were looking for is right there, just a click away. This option is presented along with results from sponsors who pay to have their links provided alongside the search results. This is really no different than seeing sponsor ads when you Google “new movie releases.”
Because not everyone likes this service, Cox makes it easy for you to opt out – even providing step-by-step instructions online. Personally, I’m keeping it – it keeps my fat fingers from interfering with my Internet experience.
Posted at 01:15 PM on January 03, 2008 | Comments
DOCSIS 3.0 Qualification!
Congrats to CableLabs! It’s another sign that collaboration truly pays off. CableLabs, the cable industry’s non-profit research and development consortium, announced this week that its awarded “qualification” status to DOCSIS 3.0. What does that mean for the customer? This opens the door to even faster Internet speeds and a broader variety of services that can be offered over cable’s broadband network.
According to CableLabs experts, DOCSIS 3.0 specifications enable “downstream data rates of 160 Mbps or higher and upstream data rates of 120 Mbps or higher.” In the CableLabs release, Cox President Pat Esser is quoted as saying, “This DOCSIS 3.0 specification is yet another example of how cable is continuing to advance the power of broadband. This technology ensures that our customers will have access to the fastest and most robust Internet service available and allows us to introduce a new generation of advanced service offerings to our customers.” Click here to read the full CableLabs announcement.
Posted at 03:00 PM on December 20, 2007 | Comments
