Articles About Cable, DSL, And The Internet

Cable's Interactive TV Creates Opportunities and Threats

San Jose, CA (PRWEB) July 25, 2007 -- Interactive TV has been derided for many years, but things are about to change. It is still a bit early, but the market for iTV will soon be fertile. iTV is already taking off in parts of Europe and Korea. Many U.S. satellite TV and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) viewers get a form of iTV today.

Soon, many of the 65 million cable subscribers will get iTV, too. But, consumers won't call it iTV. They will call it voting for their favorite American Idol, getting personalized tornado alerts, caller ID, free cosmetic samples, ordering a necklace, playing a popular cartoon game, getting team statistics or messaging friends about the season finally.

One of the keys to enable this market is the OpenCable Application Platform, also known as "OCAP" or OpenCable Platform. In theory, iTV application developers now have a "write once, run anywhere" target. OCAP shares a worldwide linage and is based on a set of standards that come from the Internet world. OCAP is already in trials and major cable companies are starting full deployment. They are motivated by recent FCC rulings and a desire to increase their competitiveness against satellite and IPTV.

OCAP is creating new business models, cable system products, consumer electronics, application development, advertising, services, tools and testing methods. But, there are a few clouds in the picture.

Take for example the Digital Video Recorder.

If you are a manufacture of such a product and you want to say that it is "iDCR", or interactive Digital Cable Ready, you need to comply with OCAP. iDCR means you will eventually be able to buy a DVR or television at the store and plug it into your cable outlet without the need for a separate set top box. OCAP specifies how an iDCR DVR can work. All of your familiar features are there -- pause, recording a series, viewing program listings for the coming weeks, etc.

So far, so good. However, OCAP has something called the "Monitor Application" in it. Think of this as a hall monitor at your grammar school -- you can't do this and you can't do that. The cable company controls the Monitor Application and this application controls what can happen in the iDCR box. So, by design, the cable company has control over the iDCR product's look and feel.

Naturally, many consumer electronics manufacturers don't like this hall monitor. But, this hasn't stopped some of them, particularly Samsung and LG -- both Korean companies. As it turns out, outside of the U.S. only one other country is adopting OCAP -- Korea, where there are already 500,000 viewers enjoying such things as online banking through their TV.

So, OCAP represents a fundamental shift for any industry that touches television. Industry momentum is really starting to build around some interesting opportunities. But, depending upon who you are, there may be even more ominous threats waiting. Are you and your company ready for OCAP?

About DIGDIA

DIGDIA helps companies find growth opportunities, create winning strategies and business plans in the digital entertainment value chain. A free excerpt of the report OCAP iTV: Issues, Opportunities, Threats is available. Services include strategic consulting and market analysis with an understanding of the industry value chain and technology. Reports on Digital Cinema, Digital Cable, IPTV, Digital Home, and Consumer Electronics and other topics may be found at www.digdia.com. OpenCable is a trademark name by CableLabs.

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