Comment (0)The MSO is testing On Demand Online, its play on TV Everywhere, and has plans to launch it nationally later this year, offering it to existing subscription video customers. That effort will initially be offered via Comcast.net and Fancast, the MSO's online video hub, but execs say the plan is to allow authentication on broadband video sites run by the programmers themselves. (See Comcast Nears 'TV Everywhere' Launch.)
They say momentum is on their side, citing that there are more than 55 million MoCA and HomePlug devices deployed around the globe.
We'll have more on this later, but these two companies are coming together, perhaps not so coincidentally, just a few days after the International Telecommunication Union, Standardization Sector (ITU-T) ratified "key components" of the competing G.hn specification, though it claims it will coexist with other wireline networking standards. (See G.hn Specs Ratified.)
Nothing's official yet, but the scuttlebutt is that Comcast is trying to craft a deal that would give it a 51 percent stake in a larger version of NBCU that would tie in the MSO's own programming assets. (See Keeping Up With Comcast .)
In comments filed this week, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) argues that no new regulations are needed, as MSOs are already subject to billing and customer service standards at the federal, state, and local levels.
— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News
Interested in learning more on this topic? Then come to TelcoTV 2009, the telecom industry’s premier event for the exploration of a comprehensive entertainment convergence strategy, to be staged in Orlando, Fla., November 10-12. For more information, or to register, click here.
