[opendtv] News: Time Warner tests IPTV in San Diego
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 09:35:03 -0400
Time Warner Cable enables customers to watch TV via Internet connection
July 14, 2005 12:00am
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune, The (KRT)
Jul. 13--In what is billed as a nationwide first for a cable
company, Time Warner Cable is letting its customers in Mira Mesa and
Tierrasanta watch television over their home computer's high-speed
Internet connection.
The pilot project ushers in what some experts believe is the future
of TV -- television over the Internet.
Ultimately, they predict, Internet protocol television, or IPTV,
could deliver more channels, offer custom features, such as local
weather or sports scores, and allow viewer interaction.
For now, Broadband TV, as Time Warner calls its service, offers the
same 75 channels that are available with its standard Advantage
service.
"It's basically like having another outlet for watching TV," said
Judy Walsh, president of Time Warner's San Diego division. "It's TV
on your PC. It's that simple."
The six-month pilot project was rolled out Friday to 9,000 of Time
Warner's customers in the test area who subscribe to both cable
television and its Road Runner high-speed Internet service.
To watch television on a computer connected to Time Warner's Road
Runner Internet service, customers download and install a media
player made for Time Warner by RealPlayer onto their computers. Then,
they log on to a special Web site (www.twcbbtv.com) using their cable
TV account numbers.
It takes up to seven seconds to connect to a channel. The show that
is playing on that channel then streams on the computer screen.
Viewers change channels with the click of a mouse.
One challenge for Time Warner was to make sure that the shows air
smoothly over the Internet, just as they do on television, as opposed
to the jumpy picture that is typical of streaming video.
Bob Jones, vice president of engineering for Time Warner's San Diego
division, said the key to high-quality video is keeping the data on
the company's private network. While the video travels along the same
pipeline as e-mail and Web sites, it never leaves Time Warner's lines.
Walsh said consumers have been asking for such a service.
"People have indicated they want to be able to watch TV on all of
the devices in their homes," she said. "This is in response to what
people want."
San Diego was chosen as the test market for Broadband TV because "it
has a terrific population of savvy PC users," said Peter Stern,
executive vice president of product management for Time Warner. "This
is the type of service that tests well with more experienced, heavier
users of the Internet."
The service is technically and economically feasible because of
advancements in technology.
Internet connections have gotten faster. Road Runner in San Diego,
for instance, offers download speeds of up to five megabits per
second, in which a customer can, on average, download a typical song
file in about five seconds.
In addition, video can now be compressed into smaller files without
losing quality, allowing more shows to be fed down the same pipeline.
After the service has been tested for six months, Time Warner said
it will decide whether to expand it to other customers in San Diego
County or even elsewhere in the nation.
The delivery of television shows over the Internet using IPTV
technology is a sign of the long-talked-about convergence of the
television set and the computer.
"IPTV will really not appear to be IPTV to the consumer because all
they will subscribe to is a television service," said Herve Utheza, a
digital media industry analyst with the Diffusion Group research
firm. "They'll end up choosing between cable, satellite and telecom
operators, and maybe, one day, online services to watch television
and movies."
Telephone companies are especially eager to deliver television over
the Internet to compete with cable TV providers, satellite TV
operators and traditional broadcasters.
SBC Communications, the largest telephone company in San Diego
County, has embarked on a $4 billion project to offer IPTV video
service over its copper wire and fiber-optic lines beginning next
year.
With SBC, the TV service will available over television sets
equipped with special set-top boxes. No pricing has been set.
SBC plans to offer more than just television shows with its service.
The service will allow customers to use their televisions to view
photos stored on their computers, spokesman Larry Solomon said. It
will provide weather information for their cities and scores of their
favorite sports teams. And it will allow customers to record a
program from their cell phones or their computers.
On-demand video will also be made available at an additional cost.
One of the keys to the IPTV technology is that instead of sending
all the channels to a customer all the time, as is the case with
traditional cable, only the channel selected by the customer is
transmitted, saving on bandwidth.
SBC and others say that means an IPTV service can deliver far more
channels to a customer.
"Because it's an IP (Internet protocol) network, the possibilities
are limitless," Solomon said. "Television viewing has not progressed
very much in the last 10 years. We're going to revolutionize the
video experience in the home."
The competition between cable and telephone companies is fierce,
especially now that cable companies are offering phone service. IPTV
is the next battleground for the two industries.
"The telephone companies have been crowing about their plans with
regard to IPTV," said Stern, the Time Warner executive vice
president. "Our experience in delivering multichannel television has
actually enabled us to deliver this service before any of the phone
companies."
SBC's Solomon said his company intends to compete as aggressively in
television service as the cable companies have in the phone business.
"We're going to turn the tables around and become a very aggressive
competitor in the video business," Solomon said. "And the winner is
going to be the consumer."
Worldwide, about 1 million households watch TV delivered via
Internet technology, according to a report by the Diffusion Group.
By 2010, the report predicts that 14 million households will
subscribe to a telephone company's IPTV service, 6.5 million will
receive IPTV from a cable or Internet service, and 17 million
households will subscribe to it via a satellite company.
Smaller telephone companies in the United States have already deployed IPTV.
Elsewhere, television over the Internet is taking hold in France,
Italy, Great Britain, Spain, Hong Kong and Korea, analyst Utheza said.
In San Diego, Cox Communications, the county's largest cable
provider, this year launched a subscription service for $14.95 a
month that allows customers to watch live Major League Baseball games
over its high-speed Internet connections.
Later this year, Cox plans to launch a new feature that will marry
the Internet with TV by allowing customers in San Diego County to
surf the Web and check their e-mail on the television. It will be
free to digital cable subscribers.
<<San Diego Union-Tribune, The (KRT) -- 07/14/05>>
<< Copyright ©2005 The San Diego Union-Tribune >>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
