Looks like an opportunity for Cube Silicon, also
MediaOne Group Adopts Open Standard for Cable-TV Set-Top Boxes
Englewood, Colorado, Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- MediaOne Group Inc., the No. 3 U.S. cable-TV provider, adopted an open standard for its digital cable systems, promoting more competition among suppliers of set-top boxes that offer expanded cable services.
Englewood, Colorado-based MediaOne said it will start distributing equipment compliant with so-called OpenCable specifications this year, a standard allowing the use of different manufacturers' set-top boxes on the same cable system. Most systems now require set-top boxes from a specific maker.
TV set-top boxes offer customers expanded features through cable such as high-speed Internet access, electronic shopping and telephone service. The open standard will challenge the dominance of General Instrument Corp., the No. 1 U.S. set-top box maker, and No. 2 Scientific-Atlanta Inc. in the U.S. It also will lead to lower prices, MediaOne said.
''It means a whole new day,'' said Bud Wonsiewicz, MediaOne chief technical officer. He said a broad adoption of OpenCable standards will attract more consumer-electronics manufacturers into the market and eventually the boxes will offer more features at lower costs.
The deployment of the new open systems will start by the end of June in a MediaOne system being upgraded for digital cable, a service featuring more channels, interactive program listings and new services such as telephone and Internet access.
MediaOne said Canal Plus Technologies, DiviCom Inc., and Royal Philips Electronics NV will be its initial OpenCable system and box-maker partners. General Instrument, now MediaOne's primary box supplier, also agreed to furnish the company with OpenCable-compliant boxes and systems.
MediaOne said Canal Plus, a unit of Paris-based Canal Plus SA, will provide the software, while Royal Philips will provide the digital set-top boxes for the initial open-system rollout. DiviCom, a unit of C-Cube MicroSystems Inc. of Milpitas, California, will provide the transmitting equipment at cable offices.
MediaOne said it's also talking with Scientific-Atlanta and Pioneer Electronic Corp. about providing OpenCable-compliant boxes.
Shares of MediaOne fell 1 1/8 to 54 1/16 in midafternoon trading. General Instrument rose 3/16 to 33 3/16, and Scientific- Atlanta climbed 1/16 to 32 1/16.
13:53:55 02/08/1999
For more stories from Bloomberg News, click here.
(C) Copyright 1999 Bloomberg L.P.
|
