The 2009 Cable Show - Debunked

Much of what you are about to read is going to be my regurgitation of the information I consumed from reading the Multichannel News coverage of The 2009 Cable Show. The keyword is much, and not all, but I do have to confess, if you are interested in keeping up with the Media Industry, Multichannel News and NAB365 have been doing a phenomenal job of covering the media convergence, and to a lesser extent, The New York Times technology section has been doing a decent job.

Anyway, The 2009 Cable Show, has kicked off and already many new advancements in cable have been announced. Being announced, however does not mean these advancements will see life, just that the companies that are currently in development with them and are hoping these products will be released. The conference's keynote speaker signaled the event by saying,

"The truth is we really don’t know what the future holds . . . we have merely an imperfect glimpse of what a truly connected nation would look like. But it is an exciting vision, and our industry fully intends to do its part to lead.
Competition and our willingness to invest and to take risks have made every aspect of our business more innovative . . . more nimble . . . more responsive to and focused on the consumer."

In these two sentences, I am calling shenanigans on being "more responsive to and focused on the consumer" and "our industry fully intends to do its part to lead," I could call it on my aspects of what is said, but then I'd be here all night. Everything the cable industry does is for the purpose of getting its consumers to give them more dough. They offer greater conveniences and services for more money, not because they care about their consumers in particular, but because they care about their wallets. But, they are all for-profit companies so what else can be expected. As for leading the industry, the cable companies are currently trying to play catch up. Many of the cable companies developed broadband Internet in order to generate more revenue, without considering the consequences on the industry and on other industries. They didn't fully understand the power of the Internet and they still went about unleashing it to their consumers. Now they are scrambling to protect their industry as others seem to be collapsing. I digress.

Cox Communications used the show as a platform to announce its new broadband service which will offer 50Mbps downloaded and 5Mbps uploaded. This service will run users around $139.99/month depending upon the market, for example Lafayette Parish, La. will only pay $89.99/month. They are doing all they can to get their consumers the best their money can buy, especially considering the 50Mbps down a user can get with Verizon is $45/month. Not that Verizon is much better considering the Japanese pay the equivalent of $22/month for 100Mbps down. Why do they pay so little? Instead of cable and DSL lines being considered a utility, their companies are forced to rent the lines to competitors, which act as another revenue source for the company making their service cheaper. That is what I call looking out for the consumer, not what Cox and the other American companies are doing.

Also debuted at the show, Macrovision's Tru2way DVR and Sprint offering the ability for subscribers to view caller ID, voicemail alerts, and such, on their TVs. To me, the Tru2way is a bit deceptive as it gives users the ability to watch DVR recordings on multiple boxes in one house. The user can record on one box, and watch on another and other similar feature. I'd assume with the name of Tru2way a user could participate in 2-way communication with the program. Instead, the user can do something I can already do with my laptop, except I can also leave my house with my laptop and watch the program then, but I guess they need to worry more about piracy than giving their customers that kind of convenience. As for Sprint's new advancement, does anyone else see Google Voice and/or Skype playing a pinnacle role in influencing Sprint, or am I just grasping for a comparison?

The greatest announcement that truly shows how dedicated the cable industry is to being "more responsive to and focused on the consumer" is the announcement of Openet. Openet will work "behind-the-scenes" with two of the U.S. biggest cable operators to track consumers' data, voice, and TV viewing usage. In other words they will be spying on you to see who you call and tracking every move you make online. They say it is so they can "improve the subscriber experience" by seeing what they are interested in. I think I will translate that into, "We really want to help out the RIAA and if the government wants to participate in warrant-less wiretapping again, we'll be prepared." Face it, those are going to be its uses, tracking who is pirating music and/or movies and TV shows and..well, maybe I am getting too 1984 with that second part. This isn't meant to service their subscribers, unless that is a new name for people/companies that what to see what broadband users are doing.

Anyway, it seems the keynote speaker at The 2009 Cable Show is a little out of touch with the rest of the industry, rather that or they didn't inform him they were no longer focusing on the customer's convenience and, instead, more on controlling their usage of media. I suppose this is a good point to leave off, after debunking the "goals" of the cable industry with their own announcements of advancements.

P.s. I am still trying to figure out if I should use this or my blogger, so I am posting the same content to both.