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Today's Show: Today we want to go over some of the news that came out of the recently concluded Cable Show. The show was held in Washington DC and ran from April 1st to April 3rd. The show drew record attendance this year with more than 12,000 attendees.

2009 Cable Show

Disney CEO wants to know what the online model will be
  • CEO Robert Iger is looking for an online model that will work for both programmers and distributors.
  • He feels that subscription models won't work.
  • He warned that nitpicking on the online watching of video could hurt the industry
  • You can not ignore the online trend for watching video
  • Cable operators are not happy with Hulu, or Networks that have their video online for free. The networks charge cable operators for their programming
  • Disney to challenge the status quo to stay ahead of the curve
  • According to Disney people who watch via the Internet are more likely watch TV and pay for premium services.
  • Disney is open to Anywhere, Anytime, Any device concept of making content available over multiple devices, including the computer, but said that authentication was key to the strategy.


Time Warner chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes is open to TV Everywhere
  • Unveiled HBO Go, a new broadband service that for subscribers of HBO on Time Warner
  • Bewkes: "We are too slow. We should put all our networks on the Internet right now. Get it out on home screens, broadband screens, put it on the Hulus and YouTubes, but only if people are subscribing to the video plant."


NFL Antitrust being looked at
  • In 1961 the NFL was granted an antitrust exemption that allowed it to collectively negotiate TV rights. It is possible that Congress will take a look at this.
  • There was an implied bargain that the games would be broadcast free over the air. Since more games are now being broadcast on ESPN and its own NFL Network congress may look into it again.
  • A review is not currently planned but Congress will monitor the situation


CableLabs to provide Tru2way Reference Implementation
  • CableLabs will release its source code of its tru2way specification for interactive TV. They are hoping to get more devices and applications deployed on this technology.
  • They will launch the reference implementation as open source for free applications and commercial license for commercial development.
  • tru2way specification is based on Sun's phoneME Java stack, which is the same platform used by Blu-ray DVD players and the DVB Multimedia Home Platform.


Broadcom announces MoCA certification
  • The Broadcom system on a chip design allows for Whole house video distribution that includes multiroom DVRs.
  • Samples are available to early adopters
  • No pricing or availability was announced


Multi Room DVRs
  • Time Warner is rolling out Multiroom DVRs based on Motorola and Cisco designs. Cox and Bright House Networks are rolling units based on Cisco Systems.
  • Cisco debuted the Explorer 86000 HDC multiroom DVR. The boxes feature dual tuners with 160 to 500 Gigabytes storage. The 86000 also supports Tru2way and has optional MoCA support
  • Cable systems are now trying to match functionality that is already available with FiOS and U-Verse service offered by the telephone companies.
  • 25% of FiOS subscribers are making use of DVR service according to Verizon.


Internet TV
  • Howard Pfeffer vice president of broadband engineering at Time Warner: "Today everybody is used to logging into e-mail," he said. "People are used to that paradigm... So now you're starting to see that on the content side."
  • Video Twitter - Generate and broadcast video from anywhere. Even in High Definition.
  • tru2Way allows Cable companies the ability to deliver a wider range of content. It will be more like a PC and the internet. You may see an application for Facebook.