Digital TV rollout......................................
multichannel.com
Adelphia Completes Digital Rollout
By LINDA MOSS
Adelphia Communications Corp., looking to compete during the holidays against direct-broadcast satellite, this week will finish rolling out digital video to 1.7 million homes in more than 25 cable systems.
The MSO's digital deployment, which started in late October and should be done by Nov. 15, is one of the largest to date. Tele-Communications Inc. is also doing a major rollout, while Cox Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. are taking a slower, market-by-market approach.
"We've been working on it [the digital deployment] for some time now," said Michael Rigas, Adelphia's executive vice president of operations. "We wanted to get a product out before the holiday season, to blunt the impact of DSS ads. We at least wanted to take the step."
Adelphia's digital platform incorporates NextLevel Systems Inc.'s DCT-1000 digital set-tops and Headend in the Sky, the TCI unit that provides digitized programming and control services to operators. Adelphia this year plans only a "soft marketing" effort for the digital service, officials said.
By the end of the year, Adelphia expects to sign up between 5,000 and 6,000 homes for digital video. But within two to three years, it projects a 20 to 25 percent penetration rate.
Adelphia Digital Cable, at $9.95 a month, will offer up to 17 channels of premium multiplexes (assuming subscribers already are buying those services), 18 channels of pay-per-view, 40 channels of digital audio from Music Choice and the Prevue Interactive on-screen guide.
Adelphia is providing those services first, primarily premium multiplexes and digital audio, because those are the main reasons why cable subscribers are going to DBS, Rigas said. That's why initially Adelphia's digital package doesn't include basic cable networks, although Rigas said they will be added on later on.
"The primary goal now is to keep the customer who is interested in getting DSS," Rigas said.
HITS will provide Adelphia with access and control for the digital boxes and with the 18 digital PPV feeds. Adelphia is taking Home Box Office, Showtime and its The Movie Channel, as well as Music Choice direct from those programmers.
Adelphia is going that route for economic reasons, and because the HITS transponders didn't quite line up right in terms of Adelphia's needs for the multiplexes, officials said.
Adelphia started its digital launch Oct. 27 in more than a dozen markets including suburban Philadelphia, its headquarters city of Coudersport, Pa., and Dover Township, N.J., where the MSO is competing head to head with Bell Atlantic Video Service. This week, Adelphia will put digital in front of its final 10 markets, including Hilton Head, S.C., and Saranac Lake, N.Y.
Regarding the scope and speed of the launch, Rigas said, "Once you've made the preparations and found the bandwidth, it's not that much more difficult to do it all at once. There's a certain amount of work you have to do anyway."
Adelphia won't aggressively market digital video this year.
"The initial marketing will be soft," said John Aducci, Adelphia's director of marketing and sales. "We're not really shouting it from the mountaintops."
Adelphia is going slow with the marketing push because it wants "to get the product out and be sure it works," according to Rigas.
Another reason for the slow-go is that Adelphia is waiting for the next generation of digital set-tops to become available, official said.
Now Adelphia is marketing digital by sending direct-mail to its multiple-pay service subscribers, as well as sending out bill stuffers, Aducci said. Cross-channel promos are also running. Telemarketing may eventually follow, and Adelphia plans to step up its marketing efforts in the first and second quarters next year.
About a month ago, Adelphia did a marketing test of digital video in Buffalo, N.Y., Aducci said, which involved mailings to 12,000 homes and telemarketing to 500 multi-pay homes. The MSO got a 10 percent acceptance rate from the 500 multi-pay homes.
Rigas and Aducci said that they consider customer education one of the big challenges of digital, and Adelphia is creating a user's guide to explain functions such as the navigator.
At this point, Adelphia isn't bundling digital cable with its other advanced services, which include long-distance phone, high-speed data access, pagers and security systems. Bundling could be done down the road, officials said.
Because not all of Adelphia's plants have two-way capability, the MSO will use a telephone return for its set-tops. |
