Western Cable Show - November 2000

Western Cable Show - November 2000

The Western Show - The Broad Band Wagon

November 28th -December 1st, 2000 Los Angeles

Representatives from the LEC attended this conference with two major goals. The first was to gain a sense of the current state of Interactive TV as it pertains to cable network offerings and how it might relate to the creation and implementation of "local enhancements." The second goal was to determine which of the various authoring tools had achieved common usage and if the industry was close to agreeing to a universal standard for nationwide iTV interoperability for set top boxes.

A panel of noted MSO leaders found comfort in embracing the promise of interactive television to differentiate the Cable industry from Satellite Service competition. iTV is becoming realistic for the Cable Industry due only to dropping costs. It is commonly felt that deep personalization promises to provide value to the online cable user and could be one of the primary reasons a potential subscriber would not shy away from an interactive television experience. Interactivity continues to claim a broad definition in the cable world. Video on Demand is strengthening its foothold, not only with pay-per-view, but now being introduced as a flat rate service with at least one popular premium channel. Personal Video Recorders are being integrated into a Set Top Boxes, Interactive Commercial networks are on the brink of large scale deployment. IP has found a friend in STB hardware manufacturers and is looking to provide meterable, secure paths for iTV content through cable.

Any number of content development entities boasts the concept of "create once", yet it is conditional. A client's concept is created then adapted to the platform(s) that will regionally host the client's content. "End-to-Enders" are creating content for clients, with the responsibility of tweaking the product to conform to the scheme of various middleware providers, and STB manufacturers.

One content developer found value in showcasing the variety of Set Top Box/Middleware relationships by physically displaying a graphic of a Middleware company's logo adjacent to the Set-Top-Box they consider to be the best hardware host. Some companies that claim to be a "guiding light" solution used this form of nebulous coagulation in marketing approaches. Arguably, one still cannot author a digital iTV product once and expect it to be distributed to a regionally diverse audience without the resources of leading End to End content developer.

ATVEF has much allegiance in the cable world with many major hardware and software manufacturers boasting its adoption. After travelling the convention floor, it was difficult to gain a sense of any diminishing value of the standard, although at least one major content provider spoke of ATVEF with a "past-tense" flavor. Even if there is an undiscovered trend away from ATVEF there was no evidence of any other standard that will satisfy the highly requested collection of rules that will lead companies to a more cost efficient common ground. The Open Cable Application Platform registered its intentions with committee member Jean-Pol Zundel of Comcast announcing promising developments and a release of their standard by the end of the year. Meanwhile, DASE advocates offered no overwhelming reason to stop the cable industry presses.

The effectiveness of the Walled Garden allows many content developers to offer it as a valued component in a comprehensive array of iTV solutions. Some hardware experts tout the added security a Walled Garden provides to the Cable Operator. One Set Top Box authority was concerned that STB security was so much in infancy that the boxes are vulnerable to Virus, Trojan Horse, Easter Egg, etc. type invasions that could possibly use the back channel to proliferate throughout the cable provider's system.

Authoring tools did have some representation on the convention floor, including products from a couple of the vendors offering demos at the LEC Boston meeting. When polled about these tools, as well as products from major web authoring companies, content developers were generally non-committal, avoiding answers that might point potential business away from their own services. Most responses included a reference to the company's proprietary tools.

Although one would think that predictable performance of enhancements in all markets would be an asset to a national operation, the cable industry is still far from establishing standards for this. Decisions made by the cable industry regarding enhancements will surely have an impact on broadcast television.