Pioneer is going after the US cable market as a third vendor...............................
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"Customers will be launching them," he insisted. "We are in homes this year with video-on-demand. The same with Internet access. Those are all things that are really rolling out and we have customer orders for and are in delivery, versus just showing something that is a trial or a theoretical exercise."
The reality is helped by the industry's push toward a standardized, interoperable OpenCable digital set-top box. That attraction led Pioneer New Media Technologies Inc. away from its superglued relationship with Scientific-Atlanta and Time Warner Cable to its own individual product working with Canal+, DiviCom Inc. and C-Cube Microsystems Inc.
"We've formed an alliance with these three companies to basically build an OpenCable box," said George Applegate, Pioneer's marketing manager. "We are still continuing that project (with S-A) and are still committed to it, but as an alternative offering we are offering an OpenCable box, more to go head-to-head with their existing products."
Applegate said Pioneer sees a need for a third vendor in the marketplace as the two largest MSOs, Tele-Communications Inc. and Time Warner slice up the digital pie with their own distinct requirements. As part of its strategy, it continues to build boxes to meet the Pegasus specifications put forth by Time Warner.
"If you read the OpenCable specs, they come in very close to Pegasus and so, hopefully, we'll be able to put a new spin on that with OpenCable and combine it with some of our existing resources as well," he theorized.
That, of course, would open up a possibility of selling to TCI.
"We certainly would love to sell to them," he admitted. "It would be great."
TCI and Time Warner, he emphasized, are no longer islands to which everyone is swimming. The industry is expanding and becoming more diversified.
"We want to be prepared to have an offering for everybody. We're really committed to that because we think it's a smart business decision," he said.
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