Broadband

Dish's Q1 disappoints; lowest sub adds in years

May 9, 2013 2:11 pm | by The Associated Press | News | Comments

Dish Network fell short of Wall Street expectations. Earnings were down 41 percent, and the company added only 36,000 TV subscribers in its first quarter, the fewest since 2009 when the recession and a dismal housing market hammered consumers.

Starz extends app to Android devices

May 9, 2013 2:06 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Starz has made its TV everywhere app available on Android handsets and tablets, including Nook HD, Nook HD+, and the Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10. Also, 3G/4G cellular access has been added to the service feature, giving Play users an additional connectivity option in addition to Wi-Fi.

Cablevision swings to loss; spending up on CPE

May 9, 2013 1:52 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Cablevision Systems swung to a first quarter loss, due in part to declining revenues in its cable TV unit. The company added a modest number of revenue generating units (RGUs), and increased average revenue per user (ARPU) by a little more than 1 percent, to $156.34.

Entropic files patent infringement lawsuit against ViXS

May 9, 2013 12:49 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Semiconductor vendor Entropic has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against ViXS that relates to its use of MoCA technology. ViXS responded by saying that Entropic’s patent infringement claim was entirely without merit and that it planned to defend itself.

Comcast’s Pick joins ValueVision board

May 9, 2013 12:34 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Comcast’s Robert Pick, senior vice president of corporate development, joined ValueVision Media’s board of directors. ValueVision, which Comcast owns a stake in, is a multi-channel retailer that operates under the ShopNBC name.

Liberty Global appoints Mockridge as CEO of Virgin Media

May 8, 2013 12:33 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

John 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

The 2013 CTO Roundtable

May 8, 2013 1:35 am | by Brian Santo | Articles | Comments

Time 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 | Comments

CED’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 | Comments

Service 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.

Memory Lane: Predicting the Internet, cable-style

May 7, 2013 8:37 pm | by Stewart Schley, Media & technology writer | Articles | Comments

If 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 | Comments

Cable 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 | Comments

You’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 | Comments

YouTube 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 | Products | Comments

Active 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.

Charter moves ahead with cloud-based UI

May 7, 2013 12:58 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

With 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.