I read your post two days ago Billy, was hoping we had more info after todays conference call. Any way here is SFA's announcement
zdii.com
"Scientific-Atlanta announced today a major milestone in the cable industry's adoption of interactive digital communications networks. In addition to Time Warner Cable and Comcast Cable, who have previously announced plans to introduce two-way, real-time digital services in 1998 using Scientific-Atlanta's Digital Interactive Network with Explorer 2000(R) interactive digital set-top terminals, Cox Cable, Adelphia Communications, Marcus Cable, MediaOne, and three major Canadian operators, Rogers Cablesystems Ltd., Videotron ltee and Cogeco, will be deploying Scientific- Atlanta's Digital Interactive Network in 1998. Nine major MSOs - with a total subscriber base of approximately 33 million -- now have plans to introduce two-way, real-time digital services this year with Scientific-Atlanta's Digital Interactive Network and Explorer 2000 interactive digital set-top terminals.
"Momentum is building in the industry to deploy truly interactive, real- time digital networks this year. The Explorer 2000 set-top is the only two- way digital set-top with scheduled shipments for 1998 deployment, and we have purchase orders for installation of our interactive system in major cities throughout the US and Canada.
"The Explorer 2000 digital interactive set-top has the PowerTV(TM) real time operating system with HTML and JavaScript - the languages of the Internet. This will allow cable operators to offer a variety of interactive digital services such as e-mail, Internet browser, video-on-demand, electronic commerce, games and advertising. Interactive applications will enable our customers and third party application developers to take advantage of the capacity and capabilities of interactive networks to increase MSO revenues by dramatically transforming the services they offer the public. Scientific- Atlanta's PowerTV subsidiary is offering an e-mail application with the initial deployment of the set-tops."
Time Warner Cable, the second largest cable operator in the U.S. with 12.5 million subscribers, will launch its Pegasus program using Scientific- Atlanta's two way digital network and Explorer 2000 set-tops in a number of major cities. Initial shipments are planned to begin in the current quarter. Comcast Cable will deploy the Scientific-Atlanta digital network and digital set-tops in its Baltimore Metro system which has 365,000 subscribers. Shipments will begin in the second calendar quarter.
Cox Communications, the fifth largest cable operator in the U.S., with 3.3 million subscribers, will purchase Digital Interactive Networks and Explorer 2000 set-tops to deploy in several of its major systems. Installation and integration will begin in the first half of 1998 with deployment to subscribers in July of 1998.
Adelphia Communications, the seventh largest U.S. cable operator, serves about two million subscribers. Its first deployment of two-way digital services is planned for its Buffalo, N.Y., cluster, which has 165,000 subscribers.
Marcus Cable, the tenth largest cable operator with 1.2 million subscribers, plans to introduce two-way digital services in three cities: Glendale, Calif.; Ft. Worth, Tex.; and Birmingham, Ala. Marcus systems have 266,000 subscribers in these cities.
MediaOne, the third largest cable operator in the U.S. with 5.1 million subscribers, will purchase a Scientific-Atlanta Digital Interactive Network with Explorer 2000 set-tops to be installed in a major MediaOne system to test market digital video and digital interactive services.
The three Canadian operators, Rogers, Videotron and Cogeco, have 4.75 million total subscribers and will be the first cable systems in Canada to deploy real-time, two-way digital services.
In a parallel announcement today, Scientific-Atlanta was selected by the CableLabs(R) Board of Directors and the OpenCable(TM) Task Force to provide the OpenCable technical team with engineering and network system services to help prepare the OpenCable end-to-end system integration specifications. The CableLabs OpenCable(TM) project was established to develop industry consensus on key specifications for advanced real-time, two-way interactive networks to assure that digital products manufactured by multiple vendors can operate in the same networks. "We are very pleased at this recognition by the industry of our leadership in the area of end-to-end network design and implementation," McDonald said.
Complementing Scientific-Atlanta's interactive digital program, sales of its 8600x(TM) advanced analog set-top continued strong in the quarter with approximately 370,000 units shipped. To date the company has delivered some 3 million units to 110 cable systems in the United States. Every terminal is equipped with a full suite of advanced capabilities including an interactive viewing guide, integrated impulse pay-per-view capability and virtual channels. Additional software releases, scheduled to begin initial deployment in the second half of calendar year 1998, will add Internet access capability to the product. Internet functionality can also be added to the 3 million existing units in the field by means of software downloads via the cable system. Advanced analog set-top terminals will continue to play a significant role because analog video will be the predominant delivery mechanism for many years and because they can economically offer a growing number of digital data-centric applications such as e-mail, Internet access and electronic commerce. In total, we shipped 720,000 analog set-tops in the second quarter. |
