Tuesday October 3 3:04 PM ET
AT&T Cable Unit Expands Video-On-Demand Service
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - AT&T Broadband, the cable television arm of communications
giant AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) on Tuesday unveiled plans to launch video-on-demand services in
three new areas in addition to its presence in Atlanta.
The move helps boost the credibility of interactive TV systems, which give consumers access to a new
group of services that cable TV providers expect to launch in coming years. The systems, in turn, should
help cable operators grow revenues.
``Digital Cable -- with its remote-control, push-button ordering capability -- (already) has led to higher
consumer usage of pay-per-view movies,'' Chief Executive Officer Dan Somers said in a statement.
``The introduction of true video-on-demand will spark even greater interest as we add hundreds of new
titles, and give our customers ultimate control over their viewing,'' he added.
Unlike current pay-per-view movies which give consumers the ability to watch a film at a certain time on a
certain day, video-on-demand allows viewers to watch a movie at any time on whatever day they want by
choosing a film from a database. Video-on-demand also allows users to pause, rewind, or fast forward a
movie just like they would a videocassette.
The video-on-demand application is one of the first of a wave of new two-way services, such as home
shopping, that cable operators hope to roll out to consumers as more and more homes are equipped with
digital cable and satellite television.
AT&T Broadband now expects to further deploy video-on-demand in Los Angeles, the San Francisco
Bay Area and Pittsburgh in ``coming months,'' it said in a statement.
The company already is testing a system in Atlanta and expects to deploy it commercially by the end of the
year.
AT&T Broadband's pricing strategy in the new markets will be similar to current pay-per-view prices, it
said.
The company is using privately held technology company DIVA Systems Corp., based in Redwood City,
Calif., to provide the system equipment, services and support to AT&T Broadband customers.
DIVA commercially launched its digital video-on-demand (VOD) service for cable television systems in
the fall of 1997.
Visit our new website today at: www.divatv.com
Is CCBL losing business to DIVA. Looks like the tech. includes the head-end equipment and the Operations center. CCBL not listed anywhere on the partners/affiliates lists?
Jim |
