What this year’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo may have lacked in new whiz-bang announcements was more than made up by a buoyant, optimistic sense that the cable industry is preparing itself for entry into a long, competitive battle to provide consumers with a dazzling array of new services. Cable modem news again dominated this show, attended […]

Ah, the fickle finger of fate. During the last decade and a half in the cable industry, that finger has been pointing all over the map, and back again, a number of times. Remember the 500-channel universe? Interactive television? Digital television? High-definition television? How about cable telephony? According to some industry observers (both informed and […]

Anyone who made the trek to Los Angeles last month for the National Cable Show and visited only the hardware booths could have easily mistaken this “cable TV” show for a “computer” show like Comdex. While certainly not as massive as a Comdex, the NCTA show did set a record for number of registrants (more […]

The advance notices regarding the 1995 Western Cable Show said that for the first time in a few years this was not going to be a technology show. Instead, it was to be driven by new programmers and discussions of how to survive a competitive, converging world. But the 23,000 people who went to Anaheim […]

Wilt Hildenbrand’s office doesn’t look like those normally inhabited by vice presidents of technology at the big multiple system operators-it’s small, almost Spartan in its appointments. It’s also more cluttered than most, and it’s filled with toys. Not kid toys, mind you, but fun things like personal computers attached to high-speed modems, and a TV […]