Privacy tightrope. After a teenage girl from Minnesota recently shopped at Target, Target evaluated her purchases, surmised she was pregnant and sent her coupons that only an expectant mother might need. The girl hadn’t mentioned her pregnancy to her parents yet, who found out when her father intercepted her mail. Targeted advertising and the violation […]
Converging on IP: Starting from Parallel Networks
Over-the-top content is forcing the issue, but how much is it forcing the schedule? Cable started with an RF-based network optimized for video and added a separate IP-based network to carry data services. Running two parallel networks, even when necessary, is inefficient, and almost since those first DOCSIS networks were built, there’s been theorizing about […]
In Perspective – (Can’t get no) Satisfaction
MSOs’ deal with Verizon Wireless hurts competition. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks plan to sell their spectrum to Verizon Wireless. If that goes through, the MSOs and the carrier intend to market each other’s products. The MSOs have strong, competitive triple plays. Bundle in one of the most attractive wireless […]
In Perspective – Six degrees of … no, wait …
Nearly every item in our Broadband 50 is somehow connected to multi-screen. At the risk of sounding like one of those people who can precisely diagram (with 8” x 10” glossy photos, with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back to explain each one) the connections of the plot hatched by the unholy […]
In Perspective – Cable’s Street Cred
Cable can compete just fine, thank you. The Cable Show is first and foremost a trade forum. But it has also become a theatrical event in which the cable industry must literally put on a show to answer the question the world at large is (and forever will be) asking: Will cable continue to be […]
The Birth of Cool
There’s a quiet revolution in powering data centers. A video service needs two things. Quality content is one. Of course, what constitutes “quality” is so subjective. Just guessing here, but we can’t imagine much overlap in the viewership of “Toddlers & Tiaras” and “Game of Thrones,” for example. Which brings up the second requirement: volume […]
The Evolution of Residential Gateways
Various vendors are creating what’s turning into a family tree. The common definition of a gateway is a system that integrates a modem and a router, but the term is used promiscuously, applied to all sorts of products. Typically when that happens, it’s the marketing flapdoodle you get when companies with indistinctly related products all […]
In Perspective – The Value Divide
This one is between “high-value” and “low-value” customers. Marketers sensibly chase after disposable income, and technologists leap to the challenge of finding ways to improve their products and find better and more efficient ways of serving customers. The potential problem is creating yet another digital divide, this one between “high-value” and “low-value” customers. In a […]
In Perspective – Mind Your Own Business
You are in a great position to establish yourselves as the ultimate facilitators. There’s an old saw about the 19th-century railroad tycoons’ failure to realize the business they were in was not railroads but transportation – much to their sorrow when rivals started beating them with alternative modes of transport. What business are you in? […]
Who Are You? Authentication in the TV Everywhere Age
TV Everywhere won’t work unless service providers can positively identify their subscribers through authentication systems. Progress is being made on the TV Everywhere concept, albeit at a measured pace. Video is widely available on various devices and in many more places than ever before, but TV Everywhere is about premium content, and when it comes […]