Have you ever wished you could watch the news on the bathroom mirror while you get ready for work? Wave your hand to order a pizza from an irresistible commercial? Not only watch shows, but smell, feel, and taste them, too? Turn your TV viewing into an immersive experience that allows you to engage with characters outside of the storyline and see additional scenes based on your profile and preferences? Well, you might be able to do these things and more in the not-too-distant future.
Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) interviewed 50 TV experts and examined three industry drivers -- technology, consumer behavior, and business models -- to paint a picture of what the future of TV will look like. Our point of view offers the first holistic vision of the future across all key dimensions of the television industry and sheds new light on the likelihood and timing of innovation.
Today, I unveiled our predictions on what the future of television might look like during my keynote presentation at OTTCon -- a trade show that hosts executives from the most innovative technology, media, and entertainment companies including PayTV operators, content producers, consumer electronics manufacturers, media aggregators and service providers.
If you are a service provider, the title of this blog probably has you shaking your head. SPs know only too well that Internet video is costing them money because of the expense of maintaining an infrastructure capable of delivering high-quality online video. The good news is that there is a way to monetize that demanding video traffic.
In 10 to 15 years, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) estimates that consumers will be watching Internet video as much as 50 percent of their video-watching time. Rather than panicking at the thought of supporting that magnitude of video traffic, SPs should be thinking about how to turn it into profits.
SPs have a strategic advantage over current content delivery network (CDN) providers; traditional CDN services allow content providers to bypass Internet congestion points, but do not allow them to bypass potential congestion points within the SP network that provides Internet access to consumers. CDN services delivered via the SP’s network are delivered by CDN caches placed much closer to the final viewer, reducing the probability of having congestion issues over the delivery path.
A few weeks ago, at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, we introduced Videoscape – our vision and product portfolio for re-inventing television in a way that bridges broadcast, Pay TV, online, on-demand, social media, and communications.
What does that really mean? Check out this series of four shorts , created to add depth and context to the notion of television, re-invented. It’s all about what Videoscape can do for service providers, to dramatically improve how people consume television.
While traveling this week I had the opportunity to read David Meerman Scott’s great new book, Real-Time Marketing, dealing with the new ways that marketers are engaging with their customers. It is a definite worthwhile read, full of examples of how the case studies highlighted there could be applied to our business…but what struck me was that TV isn’t really as much of a factor anymore as it used to be…
In industry journals, there has been an on-going debate about the extent of “cord-cutting,” the act of a consumer like you or me (also considered a subscriber by the service providers themselves) deciding to cancel their cable or IPTV service now that they can view a show via the internet, say from a service like iTunes or Hulu in the U.S. Conflicting statistics are being quoted left and right by different sides of the argument, which reminds me of Chris Brogan’s hilarious quote at a presentation I saw him give this Summer which, paraphrased, is “83.7 percent of all statistics are false.” Now I’m not saying one side or another is false but are likely just looking at the situation from different perspectives. Regardless of who’s right and what the extent really is, there is certainly some element of truth to it which means TV isn’t as much of a factor anymore as it used to be…
Personally, I wouldn’t want to get rid of my TV service. Without being able to get my Formula 1 fix or watching the Longhorn game (which in Austin is mandatory for citizenship), it would be like all the sacrifice but none of the grace of joining a monastery. But I have to admit that in my daily life, I am spending more time than ever with my tablet, PC, and phone…and as much as I love my TV, it isn’t really as much of a factor as it used to be… Read More »
Contributed by John Mattson, Director of Product Management, Cable Marketing
New 3G60 Broadband Processing Engine Enables Cable Operators to Cost-Effectively Move to All-IP Networks
The long-awaited 3G60 line card for the uBR10012 CMTS has finally arrived. Ever since Cisco first conceived this line card, many worldwide cable providers have been waiting for its debut with breathless anticipation. In my 22 years in the cable industry I can’t recall any other product with as much advance customer interest as this one.
Why is the 3G60 such a hot commodity? Because it finally brings the right combination of very high capacity and very low cost-per-port that enables operators to realistically deploy Video-over-DOCSIS (VDOC) service. And VDOC is the key to moving to a converged, all-IP network, which dramatically reduces both capital and operating costs and provides unprecedented flexibility to introduce new services quickly and efficiently.
The 3G60 provides up to 72 downstream ports and 60 upstream ports on a single line card, -- over 3 times the density of any line card on the market today. Using the 3G60, a single uBR10012 can support up to 576 downstream and 480 upstream ports per chassis. In addition, starting from a minimal base system, all of the upstream and downstream ports on the 3G60 can be provisioned via software licensing, so customers can install the card and then only pay for the ports they use. The 3G60 supports DOCSIS® 3.0 downstream channel bonding of as few as 2 up to as many as 24 channels, which makes downstream speeds of over 900 megabits per second possible. Read More »
