Tuesday, June 05, 2007

New Technology Will Give Cable Add'l HD Capacity

Time Warner Cable exec Landel Hobbs told an investment conference yesterday that switched digital video (SDV) technology will give cable companies "virtually unlimited" HDTV channel capacity when it is deployed in about half of Time Warner's markets by the end of this year. SDV is a way of sending video signals as users request them rather than broadcasting all channels to all households at once, as is the case in the current cable architecture. SDV, by sending one signal at a time (which is how AT&T's U-verse IPTV service also works) in theory should allow for as many HDTV channels as for which there is demand.

Interesting, the Time Warner exec also acknowledged that DIRECTV has done a superior job of marketing its HDTV service compared to cable, and that cable must do better to win the mindshare of consumers.

More from Multichannel News.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you listen to the Time Warner ads, they usually just mention cable phone. You rarely hear any advertising about HD. Their focus has shifted to providing phone service. It makes this Time Warner HD customer doubt their plans for HD.