Comcast embraces free Internet TV, but makes case for cable
Comcast officials saw my post yesterday about defecting from fee-based cable to free TV Internet and certainly do not relish the prospect. So much so, one called this morning.
Some cable customers turn to the Internet or go back to antennas (aka aerials) as cable bills creep up and consumers look to economize.
While Comcast posted solid results for the second quarter, there was some troubling news: it reported that video customers fell by 2.7% from 24.56 million in the second quarter of 2008 to 23.9 million this year. Voice customers grew by 23.9 and Internet 6.7 per cent. In the interest of telling both sides of the story, here's the points made by the Comcast spokesman with my comments.
-- He cited studies showing consumers are reluctant to move away from cable. I believe that's probably the case now, but will change as the quality of Internet content improves (not much HD yet). Even Comcast knows free Internet TV is inescapable: it has a site with free TV content called Fancast.com. which he said has 63,000 videos. Comcast currently provides 100 HD channels "with more on the way" and "1,000 HD shows OnDemand," he said.
-- HD is best delivered over a cable network, the spokesman said. Indeed, the majority of free Internet TV is not in HD, but hulu.com provides some shows in HD. According to Hulu, all one needs is a 2.5 mbps or higher connection and a Pentium 4 PC. It's just a matter of time before more online HD video is available online.
-- Speaking of download speeds, sufficient ones to smoothly play video exist already. My comment yesterday about herky jerky video online is the exception not the rule. Indeed, a comment to yesterday's post showed a happy Internet TV watcher with 12.128 mbps connection. I ran a test on my Comcast connection and got 13.221 mbps (thank you, CNet Bandwidth Meter). If that's not fast enough for you, try Comcast's 50 mbps DOCSIS 3.0 (Data Over Cable Service Intelligent Specification) service for $99 a month.
-- Cable operators and TV makers have been working on Java-based tru2way technology which promises a more robust two-way network and cable interfaces built in to devices such as TVs. My first reaction is don't we have that already in the Internet? But tru2way advocates claim it'll be the best way to do TV stuff like programming guides, interactive games and pizza ordering. Time frame? "Near future," according to tru2way web site, but the video below says that "90 million boxes" should have had the technology by the end of 2008. tru2way is part of the OpenCable Project whose CableLabs has created and defined cable standards for more than a decade.
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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com