CTAM Kick-off

Comcast [CMCSA] is hoping to move soon on retail and telephony, vp, biz dev Tom Nagel told CTAM Digital’s opener in L.A. Nagel said Comcast hopes to be in stores by ’05. [Mon, Cox [COX] said it’s looking to step up its telephony retail presence this year (Cfax, 03/08).] Other themes at the VoIP session included cable’s interest in potentially offering a wireless phone service as part of the bundle. "It’s something we’ve talked about internally," but there are limited business opportunities with the RBOCs controlling most of the wireless space, Time Warner Cable svp, voice services Gerry Campbell said. At Cox, execs are thinking more about how to compete with incumbent phone companies that likely will start touting wireless as a part of their bundles, said Scott Hightower, Cox vp, data and voice product dev. Downstairs attendees got a closer look at the CTAM On Demand Consortium’s list of best practices for on demand, DVR and other user interfaces. A key takeaway: maintaining a common navigation mode. Improving graphics, readability and fonts, while providing more on-screen help and visual cues are suggestions S-A [SFA] IPG users have provided, said Bindu Crandall, S-A dir, marketing.