September 21, 1999:
NTL Picks Diva for VOD
London -- U.K. cable operator NTL Inc. will begin
commercial deployment of video-on-demand next year
using Diva Systems Corp.?s platform.
NTL -- the biggest MSO in the United Kingdom, with
about 2.8 million customers -- announced plans to
deliver VOD service over its digital set-top boxes,
replacing its current near-VOD service.
Diva will provide system elements to include video
servers, content-management centers, billing
interfaces, system software and optical networks.
NTL has been testing VOD since earlier this year, and
it hopes to begin deploying the service commercially
by mid-2000. The company, which also tested a service
developed by Elmsdale Media, said it would name a
second VOD-technology supplier "in due course."
"NTL?s cable will deliver true VOD at around 4
megabits [per second], and it is the only platform
capable of achieving a quality our U.K. competitors
can only dream about," NTL Media and Marketing
Services group managing director Steven Wagner said
in a news release.
Diva?s deal -- contingent on hitting technical and
commercial milestones -- follows its first major U.S.
MSO agreement, announced last week with MediaOne
Group Inc.
Other British MSOs also have explored VOD, with
Telewest Communications plc testing a system using
technology from nCUBE and SeaChange International
Inc.
- 9/21/99
multichannel.com |
