NCTA Convention Notebook...

May 7, 2002 |Miscellaneous

Neil Bush, President Bush’s brother, visited NCTA convention Sun. to pitch his newest business scheme to cable operators. Speaking at early convention session, Bush, chmn.-CEO of Ignite, said his new company would introduce online, educational “courseware” in fall that would offer multimedia versions of middle-school textbooks. Designed to fully complement, not compete with, school curricula, Ignite’s customized courseware will cost $30 per child per subject. Bush, who raised $18 million in private capital to launch his company, plans to start with American history in fall, then expand course offerings to earth, life and physical sciences. Describing himself as “kind of a Pollyannic type of guy,” Bush said his online, multimedia textbooks would help teachers reach and motivate their students. “Our teachers are still using screwdrivers and sledgehammers,” he said. President’s brother urged cable to back his efforts by installing more high-speed data connections to schools and homes and supporting development of software and applications to fill broadband pipeline. “I think the cable industry has a huge potential role,” he said: “Build out the cable modem thing” and promote use of applications. Bush, who said he started Ignite for healthy mix of social responsibility and profit motives, projected that company “won’t be profitable for 3 years” and “won’t be dominant for 5 years.” He decried schools’ increasing reliance on standardized testing and assessments, even though his brother has been strong advocate of both, because he believes they favor memorization ability over thinking skills. But he said he wouldn’t press that case with President. “I made a point of not lobbying him,” Bush said. “He’s got his people.” -- AB

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In sign of more austere times for industry, cable networks and equipment vendors seemed to be marketing themselves at NCTA convention far less aggressively than in past. On main highway from airport to convention center and surrounding hotels, for instance, usual large billboard signs promoting such prominent networks as HBO, Showtime, TBS, TNT and USA were conspicuous by their absence Sun. afternoon. In another example, usual mix of buttons, bags, souvenir items, foods and other giveaways hyping various programmers and vendors were noticeably absent from rooms of at least one major convention hotel. But all was not lost. Viacom’s MTV Networks unit still planned to sponsor convention performance by aging rocker Bon Jovi Mon. night. -- AB

Group of technology companies formed new association, Interactive TV (iTV) Alliance, they announced at NCTA convention. Group’s leaders said their agenda was to “aggressively promote” iTV deployment through consumer awareness campaigns and cross-industry outreach. They said group had more than 30 companies as members, including Canal+, Liberate, OpenTV, Wink and WorldGate. “In order for iTV to happen, we need every constituency in the room,” iTV Alliance Chmn. Art Cohen said. “All media sectors need to work together to create iTV, and we've structured this association around that.” Alliance is developing public awareness campaign, beginning with 30-min. TV show customized for each network operator, magazine supplements, online information, public demonstrations. It said it would cooperate with existing industry organizations. “Broadcasters, cable and satellite operators, programmers and advertisers all stand to profit from iTV. We plan to provide education, networking opportunities and professional services for our members,” said Ken Papagan, pres. of Delmar Media.NET.

Putting hard drives in cable TV set-top boxes is money- maker for cable operators, new report by Kagan Media Appraisals said. Kagan said hard-drive-enabled set-top boxes would give cable industry increased revenue streams, reduce churn and lower infrastructure costs because of more efficient use of bandwidth. “The introduction of local storage connected to a 2-way multimedia distribution network creates broad opportunities to add numerous services and the accompanying subscription fees,” Kagan Senior Analyst Ian Olgeirson said. Cable MSOs that include PVR services will be among “early winners” in emerging video-on-demand (VoD) and subscription VoD demand markets, he said. Other possibilities range from audio services to enhanced advertising to gaming, as well as music service bundling, he said, leading to possibility of increasing annual revenue more than $100 per subscriber.

Time Warner Cable is in beginning stages of deploying Scientific-Atlanta’s new Explorer 8000 digital interactive set-top box with digital video recording capabilities. Device allows users to pause live TV, record one channel while watching another, record 2 channels and play back one channel simultaneously, and have picture-in-picture (PIP). Explorer 8000 home entertainment server features 80 Gb hard drive, capable of recording up to 50 hours of programming.

Delving into cable market again, Microsoft said it planned to introduce interactive program guide (IPG) for digital cable systems. Microsoft, which has largely failed in several attempts to crack cable market for interactive TV (ITV) software with its Microsoft TV product, said its new program guide would be available to Microsoft TV customers later this month. Company also said guide would be compatible with 2 of Motorola’s basic digital set-top boxes - - DCT1000 and DCT2000 -- that already had been widely deployed by cable operators. Move by Microsoft should create first serious competition for Gemstar-TV Guide International, which has dominated growing IPG market with its TV Guide Interactive product and aggressive use of patent lawsuits. Microsoft also announced its latest upgrade of Microsoft TV software, adding support for integrated video-on-demand and personal video recording.

More than half of U.S. Internet users access some form of streaming media, according to new study released Mon. at NCTA show. Conducted by CTAM, survey found that 56% of Web users viewed video clips and/or listened to news or music. It also said that 27% of Web users said they were very or somewhat likely to pay transaction fee to view full-length movies on their PCs, 23% were very or somewhat likely to pay for music and 20% expressed willingness to pay for live sports events on Internet. In addition, study said: (1) 34% of users said they toured travel destinations online. (2) 32% said they listened to music on Internet radio stations. (3) 26% had watched news clips online. (4) 21% had downloaded music from Web. (5) 19% had taken virtual tours of homes for sale. (6) 14% had watched video clips of product demonstrations online.

AT&T Digital Media Centers (ADMC)said it was launching recovery service designed to keep cable networks up and running when natural or other disasters affected their origination and distribution facilities. ADMC said it was offering different levels of service, including maintaining archive of all components of network’s lineup up to 24 hours of programming. ADMC, which operates facilities in N.Y., L.A., Denver and Hong Kong, said its capabilities included encoding and duplication.

Inspiration Networks said it entered into affiliate distribution and marketing agreement with La Familia Network (LFN) to offer network nationwide. LFN’s programming includes talk shows, music, live sports, religious programs.

FCC granted request by Comcast and AT&T for one-week delay to file reply comments on their proposed merger. Companies cited flurry of comments and need for more time to reply.

IN DEMAND and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. said they had expanded their relationship to include new long-term agreement for video-on-demand (VoD). AOL Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons said he hoped other studios would see wisdom of using their content in such manner.

CableLabs said it extended OpenCable application platform (OCAP) software, or middleware, specification with release of OCAP 2.0. OCAP is middleware specification that enables application portability across wide range of home devices and cable networks. OCAP 1.0 defines Java-based execution engine and OCAP 2.0 extends that platform with addition of Web-based technologies such as XHTML, XML, ECMAScript.

TVGate, interactive TV division of Comverse, rolled out TVXML Forum, nonprofit organization to promote standardization and development of 3rd party services and applications that require 2-way communications capabilities.

AT&T Broadband said it consolidated its Headend in the Sky (HITS) unit, which delivers network programming to cable operators, into AT&T Digital Media Centers (ADMC) division. Company said consolidation would improve ADMC’s ability to integrate service offerings and streamline customer service.

Broadway TV Network said it would make its library of Broadway musical titles in high-definition available for licensing for pay-TV, video-on-demand, broadcast venues.

Pioneer Digital Technologies said it created remote diagnostic tool for cable called Webnostics. New tool will allow cable operators to trouble-shoot problems involving set-top boxes.