By Joe Chow, Vice President and General Manager, Connected Devices Business Unit
Following Cisco’s 2Q FY ’13 earnings call last week, we received questions about our commitment to certain elements of our set-top box business. Comments were made that Cisco is walking away from low-margin deals. I would like to clear up any confusion surrounding those comments here.
Cisco remains committed to providing world-class managed customer premise equipment (CPE), which includes digital set-tops, intelligent media gateways and other devices. CPE is an integral part of Cisco’s end-to-end Videoscape TV services delivery platform. For emerging markets, CPE enables Cisco to offer a complete end-to-end solution for new customers as they launch and grow their digital platforms. For customers with more advanced video platforms and in more advanced video markets, CPE provides a key strategic advantage and opportunity for Cisco. Read More »
Every few months there seems to be a rumor or speculative comment about our commitment to our set top box business. Let me be as clear as I can: we love set top boxes. But, you don’t have to believe me. Let me point you to Cisco’s Q2 Fy12 earnings transcript where Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers stated, in part:
“In terms of set top boxes, we are very much committed to this marketplace. Our SP customers asked us to partner with them as they move from traditional set top boxes to IP set top boxes to the cloud, our Videoscape solution. Receptivity so far has been very, very good in terms of our strategy.”
(February 8, 2012)
His full comment is below which gives you a little more flavor of our commitment to our Videoscape solution, but I hope that this clarifies any erroneous, un-sourced comments that might be out there in the marketplace.
John Chambers full comment (page 6): “Our video strategy is in very good shape. We have by far and away the strongest end-to-end architecture for video going from the cloud to the end device, enabled by our Medianet architecture and the Videoscape platform. This makes video much more practical, easier to use, and easier to consume. Along with Cloud and mobility, video is one of the most significant transitions our SP and Enterprise customers are experiencing. Following a very strong Q1, SP video had another very strong quarter with 23% revenue growth year over year. In terms of set top boxes, we are very much committed to this marketplace. Our SP customers asked us to partner with them as they move from traditional set top boxes to IP set top boxes to the cloud, our Videoscape solution. Receptivity so far has been very, very good in terms of our strategy. We have demonstrated our capability to bring video to large volumes of any combination of devices whether it is Cisco, our peers and even our competitors.”
By Everth Flores, Director & GM, Service Provider Video EMEA, Cisco
Quite the feeding frenzy this week over an expected bit of news about our partner, Virgin Media, and its supply chain plans for digital set-top boxes! Yeesh.
The facts: Per a long-standing agreement, we manufacture and supply TiVo-based digital set-top boxes to Virgin, as well as to Ono in Spain. To date, we’ve been the sole supplier of those devices — with the certain understanding that Virgin, like any sensibly minded operator, would at some point introduce a second source. Read More »
Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the video bonanza happening in the U.S., and forget to notice the groundswell of advanced video activities in other parts of the world.
Well, we’re here to tell you: Advanced video is alive and well in Spain. This week, we formalized an ongoing partnership with ONO, the largest cable operator in Spain, and the country’s leading broadband service provider.
Fernando Meco, ONO’s TV Product Development Director
Technically, the announcement means we’ve successfully deployed our DOCSIS 3.0-based CMTS, linked over ONO’s extensive fiber optics network, to our 8685DVB HD-DVR media servers – hybrid set-tops, containing both MPEG and DOCSIS tuners. Read More »
By Joe Chow, Vice President and General Manager, Connected Devices Business Unit
