Motorola Plugs a CDN Hole

A new partnership in the content delivery network (CDN) world kicks off today's cable news snapshot.

Motorola Mobility LLC says it now has a full CDN offering to pitch to MSOs and other service operators around the globe after striking a distribution deal with EdgeCast Networks Inc. , a firm that provides CDN provisioning, monitoring and management services. The deal gives Moto an IP CDN component and complements its line of encoders, transcoders, and video servers and software, resulting in a broader platform that can compete with CDN systems from rivals such as Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO). EdgeCast President James Segil estimates that his company carries 4 percent to 5 percent of the world's Internet traffic across its CDN. Some of EdgeCast's larger service operator customers include AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) and Telus Corp. (NYSE: TU; Toronto: T).

New digital set-tops to be deployed by U.S. MSOs this fall are projected to offer energy savings of 20 percent or more when they shift into a new "light sleep" mode, says CableLabs , referring to a low-power mode that keeps the "essential" activities of a box going while shutting down other tasks such as channel tuning. CableLabs expects more than 10 million boxes to support the new mode by the end of 2012 as MSOs deploy the new boxes and add sleep mode capabilities in eligible, deployed boxes via software upgrades.

The top 18 U.S. MSOs and telcos added 3 million net new high-speed Internet subs in 2011, extending the total to 78.6 million, according to Leichtman Research Group Inc. (LRG) . Cable dominated the telcos during the year, accounting for 75 percent of the broadband additions.

DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV) is working on a tech and bandwidth plan to support Ultra-HDTV, a budding higher-resolution format that will bring IMAX-like images to consumer TVs, reports Advanced Television, noting that Japan plans to debut Ultra-HDTV in 2020.

Related Content Database Inc. (RCDb) has changed its name to Watchwith in concert with the debut of a platform-as-a-service offering and a beta developer program. Targeted to content owners, Watchwith's platform converts movies and TV shows for display on a range of connected devices, including Blu-ray players, TVs, tablets, smartphones and PCs. (See RCDb’s Web TV Coming-Out Party.)

Mediacom Communications Corp. has launched a string of customer service improvements, including a new 30-minute appointment arrival window that replaces the old four-hour service window.



— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable