It appears that not every VOD deployment is set in stone as some MSOs mull their upgrade plans.

Adelphia Communications and Time Warner Cable are making some video-on-demand vendor changes in select California cities, but for markedly different reasons. Despite the different decision drivers, nCUBE Corp. appears to be the VOD vendor that is benefiting in each case.

The most significant alteration is occurring in Adelphia's Los Angeles system, where the MSO serves roughly 1.2 million cable subscribers. Adelphia originally tapped Concurrent Computer Corp. for a 1,000-stream VOD trial, but has since opted to go with an alternative vendor due to a number of "integration issues." nCUBE is said to have the inside track on winning that business.

"We are moving to a different vendor in Los Angeles instead of Concurrent," Adelphia spokesman Paul Jacobson said. "We expect to be using Concurrent equipment in other VOD environments. Our engineering staff is looking at alternatives right now in the Los Angeles market. They have yet to reach a firm conclusion on which direction to go."

Jacobson wouldn't put a specific timeline on when Adelphia hopes to relaunch VOD in Los Angeles, but said the company plans to have the new platform installed and ready to go in a matter of months. "Los Angeles is a very important market to us; it's our biggest market, and it's a showcase market," Jacobson said.

Steve Necessary, president of Concurrent's Xstreme unit, said he was "disappointed" in Adelphia's decision, but that "we, Concurrent and Adelphia, are still looking forward to a long-term relationship. It just happens not to be on that 1,000-stream deployment in Los Angeles."

Necessary also downplayed the integration issues that popped up in Los Angeles. "The reality is we were working our way through those issues. But I really characterize them...as issues that ultimately got resolved or at least were well on their way to resolution," he said.

At Time Warner Cable, meanwhile, the MSO has removed Concurrent's VOD platform in the San Diego market and has done the same with SeaChange International's gear in Desert Cities, Calif. In both cases, Time Warner Cable has replaced those legacy systems with nCUBE's platform, confirmed Time Warner Cable spokesman Keith Cocozza.

After consolidating the San Diego and Palm Desert systems under one management late last year, the operator decided to go with one, unified on-demand platform in those markets as the decision was made to upgrade from early, first-generation equipment to more scalable, current-generation VOD technologies.

Cocozza said the MSO's divisions are now at liberty to upgrade their VOD systems and put them out for competitive bid.

Concurrent's Necessary declined to comment on the situation with Time Warner Cable in San Diego, but said his company has received "several new commitments" from the MSO recently.

For nCUBE, the new deals with Adelphia and Time Warner Cable spell the end of a deployment dry period for the vendor. "nCUBE, which was written off for dead until only very recently, now is suddenly viable again, it seems, or at least taking a run at it," said Rich Ingrassia, senior research analyst at Roth Capital Partners.

Still, momentum in the win-some, lose-some VOD arena can be fleeting, he warned. "In any given quarter, one or another of these players emerges as the go-to [vendor]. Right now you've got to give the momentum to nCUBE, but how long will that last?"