The Premier Magazine of Broadband Technology
FREE Email Newsletter
Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
TiVo ups the ante on viewer data mining
May 8, 2013 1:32 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsTaking TV advertising metrics to yet another new level, TiVo’s research subsidiary has signed up 48K TiVo users who have agreed to provide far more information about their individual viewing and buying habits. The service can give advertisers an even more detailed view correlating ad spending and buying behavior.
TWC updates app for Android devices to include out-of-home viewing
May 8, 2013 12:38 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsTime Warner Cable has upgraded its TWC TV app for Android devices, which includes access to some content out of subscribers’ homes. Last month Time Warner Cable announced some of its VOD content and live programming were available to customers outside of their homes on Apple’s iOS devices.
Liberty Global appoints Mockridge as CEO of Virgin Media
May 8, 2013 12:33 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsJohn Malone’s Liberty Global announced that it has picked former News Corp. executive Tom Mockridge as Virgin Media’s new CEO. Mockridge will take over for current Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett once the $23 billion deal, which is subject to shareholder approvals, closes
Technicolor picks MaxLinear’s chipset to power hybrid box
May 8, 2013 12:25 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsTechnicolor is going with Max Linear’s chips to power its new hybrid satellite / terrestrial (ISDB-T) HD set-top boxes for the Latin America market. Specifically, Technicolor will be using MaxLinear’s MxL683 chip in the box that was designed for direct-to-home satellite operators in Latin America.
The 2013 CTO Roundtable
May 8, 2013 1:35 am | by Brian Santo | Articles | CommentsTime Warner Cable’s Mike LaJoie, Cablevision’s Yvette Kanouff, Cox Communications’ Kevin Hart, and Buckeye Cablesystem’s Joe Jensen share their thoughts on some of the most prominent technological challenges they are dealing with today, and a few they might have to contend with tomorrow.
Second-screen CTO Vendor Roundtable
May 8, 2013 1:10 am | by Mike Robuck | Articles | CommentsCED’s CTO roundtable has mined the thoughts of cable operator executives for years now, but this is the first iteration of a vendor CTO roundtable. CED narrowed the field to chief technical officers, or the equivalent, that play a part in the multi-screen ecosystem.
Open Mic: Cable’s best strategy for winning the multi-screen numbers game
May 8, 2013 12:23 am | by Buddy Snow, President, CEO, Morega Systems | Articles | CommentsService providers are transitioning to a multi-screen service model, offering subscribers access to media content at home and on the go across TVs, PCs, and mobile devices. These media mobility services remain annoyingly cumbersome today, but the industry recognizes the need to push forward and smooth out the wrinkles as quickly as possible.
Ciciora’s Corner: The Second Half of the Chess Board
May 7, 2013 8:51 pm | by Walt S. Ciciora, Expert on cable and consumer electronics issues | Articles | CommentsFuturist Ray Kurzweil is reported to have coined the phrase “the second half of the chessboard” to illustrate the impact of exponential growth. The cable industry and the semiconductor industry have both experienced exponential growth. Let’s use this interesting idea to take a closer look at exponential growth.
Memory Lane: Predicting the Internet, cable-style
May 7, 2013 8:37 pm | by Stewart Schley, Media & technology writer | Articles | CommentsIf you’ve been around awhile, or are of “a certain age,” you may recall a few early attempts to couple cable’s distribution infrastructure with text and graphical information. You know: stuff you might label today as “content.” Starting in the early 1980s, a parade of initiatives flew across cable’s radar, launched by some big names (then) in media and publishing, plus a few homespun start-ups.
Engineering-Wise: Cable’s place atop the operations world
May 7, 2013 8:26 pm | by Marty Davidson, VP Engineering & Network Operations, SCTE | Articles | CommentsCable has made incredible progress in network and service reliability/availability. From vast improvements of the early days to the introduction of lifeline services like voice, we have reduced customer reported troubles from 40 percent to under 3 percent in an amazingly short time. Network troubles have followed a similar trajectory.
Capital Currents: That notorious copyright decision
May 7, 2013 8:10 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | Articles | CommentsYou’ve certainly read about that notorious decision by the Librarian of Congress that made it illegal for a cell phone owner to “unlock” a cell phone so that it can be used with a different carrier. But that same decision, which came out last October, contains other elements, including some that apply more directly to our business.
YouTube reportedly set to carry pay channels
May 7, 2013 2:09 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsYouTube is reportedly set to announce within a few weeks a series of channels that will require payment. The content on the new pay channels will be in addition to the millions of videos viewers watch for free on YouTube. It's not clear whether the paid videos will come with advertising.
Active Broadband heads to IMS over DOCSIS
May 7, 2013 2:03 pm | by Brian Santo | Product Releases | CommentsActive Broadband Networks said its service management system now supports the IMS Rx interface as specified in PacketCable 2.0. The support for the interface paves the way for the delivery of IMS services over DOCSIS networks by providing support for PCMM policy control via the Diameter-based Rx interface.
Suddenlink attracts subscribers; sets telephony project
May 7, 2013 1:52 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsSuddenlink’s Q1 2013 revenue was up 6.4 percent compared to the company’s earnings in its first quarter last year. The company noted that its capex spending would increase with the adoption of its own telephony platform, a process that began in March and is planned to be implemented largely in 2014.
Charter moves ahead with cloud-based UI
May 7, 2013 12:58 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsWith over a year at the helm of Charter Communications, Tom Rutledge’s vision for the nation’s fourth-largest cable operators is firming up across multiple fronts. Rutledge said on this morning’s first quarter earnings call that Charter’s all-digital conversion project and cloud-based user interface (UI) were two of the company’s biggest objectives this year.
