OCAP OK: Cable Touts Oct Rollout

Presenting a unified and imposing face at CES, the heads of the 6 biggest cable operators joined 3 of the top CE manufacturers to say they would deploy OCAP in specific headends by Oct. This means that MSOs will be able to handle a variety of interactive services they hope will virtually negate any interactive advantages DirecTV may have. It also signals the end for proprietary interactive systems like Liberate and Wink. Demonstrating the depth of of cable’s OCAP plans, Comcast and Time Warner Cable disclosed markets that will have OCAP this fall: Philly, Denver, Boston and N NJ for Comcast; NYC, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Lincoln, NE, and Waco, TX, for TW. "We’re beginning to announce concrete steps to show that this is real," Glenn Britt said. Cable hopes this is the 1st step toward more agreements with CE on 2-way plug and play and downloadable conditional access systems. "We’re talking today about OCAP," NCTA’s Kyle McSlarrow said. "The future is with a software solution for downloadable security."