After about a month at retail, the country’s largest MSO only has completed 6 cable card installations, and a seventh had so many hiccups, it never was able to be installed properly, Comcast CTO/evp David Fellows told a Summit panel Mon. Similarly, Cox only has completed "a handful" of installations, vp multimedia technology John Hildebrand added. "We’re there, and we’re ready. We don’t know how successful it’s going to be yet," Hildebrand said. "We’re trying to figure out how many cable cards we need to have on hand." Comcast technicians are spending more time debunking "growing urban legends" surrounding the 1-way, cable-ready TVs than actually installing the cards, Fellows said. "There’s no guide; no interactive services; no free HBO SVOD," he said. He spoke of a subscriber who returned his TV when he realized he still would have to pay for cable. — All or Nothing: Fellows urged marketers to devise another term for all digital. "All digital is not ‘no analog,’" he said. Fellows also spoke about the need for digital set-tops to become smaller, arguing for a correlation between small set-tops and digital uptake. "Two-thirds of Comcast customers have resisted our attempts to get them to subscribe to digital," he said, adding subs marketed with set-tops as small as a cigarette pack have showed "little resistance." Two-Way Dealin’: A range of issues is delaying a 2-way plug & play deal, Philips’ Brian Smith said, but declined to elaborate. Hopefully, the industry will see a deal reached within a year or 2, Smith said.

The Daily

Subscribe

Section 706: ISPs Once Again Battle Over Benchmarks

The FCC is once again looking to fulfill its Section 706 obligation through its annual Notice of Inquiry into the state of broadband deployment.

Read the Full Issue
The Skinny is delivered on Tuesday and focuses on the cable profession. You'll stay in the know on the headlines, topics and special issues you value most. Sign Up

Calendar

Apr 25
2024 Cablefax 100 Awards Nominations Are Open!
Full Calendar

Jobs

Seeking an INDUSTRY JOB?
VIEW JOBS

Hiring? In conjunction with our sister brand, Cynopsis, we are offering hiring managers a deep pool of media-savvy, skilled candidates at a range of experience levels and sectors, The result will be an even more robust industry job board, to help both employers and job seekers.

Contact [email protected] for more information.