The Future of Cable Software/hardware

[Jonathan David]

Now i can understand if due to commercial considerations that those with official connections to ntl (proping and Nigel S) cannot comment, but I would like to know is the software and hardware capable in the future of being the $ky killer that cable was described in the past as being?
What feature/s could the set-top-box manafacturers, software programmers and Cable providers (both here and the U.S.) bring in that would 'blow us all away'
Could we all in the future say we have cable television with a smile on our faces rather then having to say it very quicker then look away.

[downquark1]

Good post,

I think the future of TV will be a database of programs that can be streamed at any time - similar to what the BBC are planning, if NTL manage to give us this first when they broke their DTV promise - I'll eat my hat.

[andygrif]

Agreed, and I would hope that ntl realise that there are a number of companies already doing this, via DSL lines. One such company in London right now is about to embark on a largish roll-out plan in the near future.

I have always been a believer in the capabilities that cable delivered services can offer, but it seems that the with the financial woes of the last few years the entire development into this area has utterly stagnated.

True converngence of product, i.e. IP based solutions for both phone and TV as well as internet is the only way forward. True video on demand (VOD) content licensing of programmes old and new, movies, music, sports and a payment method that is based on what you watch (hence offering the content provider to collect a percentage fee of the carraige of each customer that watches their programme). Unfortunately the system they have right now appears (from my end) to be a complete white elephant and I am not convinced that it will be possible without massive investment to port to such VOD systems. This is despite the fact that those in the industry knew this was the way the business would end up many many years ago.

Voice over IP is predicted to be next year's big technological take off, and again ntl are in an enviable position to be able to convert to this standard comparatively simply and efficiently.

Internet service offerings need upgrading in a big way to offer faster speeds and greater return on investment and the provision of the similar kinds of content as seen on BB+ needs to be ported over to the television service.

I still beleive that DTH cable systems are the future, however I remain to be convinced that ntl are capable enough to deliver all that is required to be a market leading service provider before others get there first - which would be disaterous and potentially fatal to ntl.

[MovedGoalPosts]

I suspect the debacles that ntl have had over the cap issues show, if their reasoning of limited bandwidth capacity are to be beleived, how far away the ntl network is from being able to support the "new" developments that IP connectivity would have to hold.

When cable was first available, in the days when only analogue TV and telephone services were provided, one could see that there should have been potential there for proper 2 way interactivity in TV services. But Sky got there first. Even now Ntl's interactive offering is crippled by comparison to Sky, and where is ntl's version of Sky+ ?

Realistically, ntl have too much financial debt to be able to invest properly in thier infrastructure. I do not hold out much hope for the long term future of cable in the UK, despite the potential it undoubtedly should have had.

[Foo Fighter]

Its becomming more and more popular to just download tv from the internet... its so much better

watch american tv same day or even before its aired in the usa
watch it when ever you want
never miss an episode
no bloody adverts

hopefully one day this will be the normal way to watch tv, scrap most of the tv channels and give everyone 10mbit internel network speed... that way we should be able to stream rather than download

anyway i'm happy with it now, its takes about 2hours or so to get a tv episode on 600k, its about the same quality as normal digital channels and has no ads

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by andygrif

I have always been a believer in the capabilities that cable delivered services can offer.

So was I. Thats why I got ntl rather than sky