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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stoctrash who wrote (49686)	7/21/2000 10:53:08 AM
From: Tim Esser	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50808

A question for John R. I have Charter Communications as my cable provider, and just got a flyer from them hyping their new upgraded service that is coming. They are going to feature the "General Instruments DCT Series" set top box. Who or what is in this box? Thanks in advance. Tim

To: Stoctrash who wrote (49686)	7/21/2000 11:33:35 AM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50808

centralsteele on the Yahoo board found this........... forbes.com Codec Moment IN A BOOM TIME FOR SEMICONDUCTOR stocks, one player has been left out. C-Cube Microsystems, a maker of video chips for digital devices like DVDplayers and set-top boxes, was spun off to the public in May from a parent with the same name. At a recent $20 the new C-Cube (Nasdaq: CUBE) trades at just 2 times sales and 16 times earnings. Competitor Broadcom, at $250, sells at 104 times sales. Campbell Gibson of TGT Capital Partners says the market still associates C-Cube with its onetime core business, supplying chips for things like karaoke machines. But C-Cube is pushing into more promising markets, most notably coder-decoder chips used in recordable DVD players, (see "Format War" By John C. Dvorak), Web-based phone service and streaming video. It's an enticing takeover target for Broadcom or Texas Instruments, which have big set-top box businesses but no codec lines, says Gibson. --Leigh Gallagher

To: Stoctrash who wrote (49686)	7/23/2000 12:47:59 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Metadata......................................... allnetdevices.com July 21, 2000 Interactive television will significantly change the television business model and lower traditional advertising revenues but, overall, will lead to far more revenues, according to a new study by Forrester Research. Specifically, the study predicts that interactive television will drain $18 billion in ordinary TV advertising revenues, but it eventually will create $25 billion in new revenues from viewers who interact with their TVs. "Smarter TV devices like personal video recorders (PVRs) and interactive digital cable boxes will move viewers beyond the passive viewing experience, allowing them to watch TV on their own schedules, interact, and connect to on-screen services," said Josh Bernoff, principal analyst at Forrester Research. The study predicts that, by the end of 2000, 34 million U.S. households will use interactive program guides (IPGs), 5 million will interact with programs and commercials with interactive systems and 750,000 will record programming on PVRs like TiVo and Replay. By 2005, there will be 87 million IPG households, 65 million households that can interact with video, and 53 million PVR users, the study predicts. The study predicts that cable and satellite operators will build so-called walled gardens -- captive collections of commerce and ad-supported content -- for their viewers that will generate more than $3 billion in commerce by 2002. However, the study says that the true revenue potential of smarter television won't arrive until 2003, when it predicts networks and operators finally agree on standards for metadata -- information about programs and commercials embedded in video streams. Metadata will enable new consumer behavior such as user-customized video and layered commercials that invite viewers into ever-deeper interactions. Those new activities will generate new revenue streams, the study predicts. Specifically, by 2005 it will generate $7 billion in subscriptions, $17 billion in marketing fees and advertising, and $23 billion in commerce. "Rather than destroy traditional television, it will rejuvenate existing content and bring affluent viewers back to television," Bernoff said. "Smarter TV is good news for companies in the TV industry -- if they prepare for it now." said Bernoff.