Archive for March, 2009

After the success of CableCares, we are bringing back CableCares for community service work in Washington, DC. This year’s CableCares initiative will focus on donating time, materials and financial support to help improve Washington, DC schools and the community.

Live and direct from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, I am happy to report that the 2009 Cable Show is now officially loading in and that Broadband Nation is starting to take shape:

Since this has been a busy week, it seemed like a good time to provide an update on the broadband stimulus implementation process. I’ll refer you back to this earlier video from NCTA President & CEO Kyle McSlarrow and our White Paper; we think a strong broadband infrastructure is a good thing and we think the use of grants to promote broadband is a good thing, but we also think the funds ought to be used efficiently and we think the process ought to be fair & transparent.

Here’s the weather forecast for Washington, DC during The Cable Show. Unfortunately, it is expected to rain next Wednesday and Friday, but that should not affect many Cable Show attendees as they will be nice and dry inside the Washington Convention Center.

I hope you are following the very vibrant debate that’s been taking place over the last week, involving  Boxee CEO Avner Ronen, Chairman of HDNet Mark Cuban and a host of other people about the relationship between free online video and the programming available from multichannel video distributers, such as cable, satellite and phone companies.

This week, Comcast and Sony opened up a joint retail presence in Philly: Sony Style Comcast Labs. Quite a mouthful, but the name reflects its intention, as both retail store and technology lab, to serve as a place for consumers learn about emerging technologies and check out the latest digital devices.

Stories about “cord cutting” seem to be all the rage right now, but many of them are overlooking some pretty basic – and readily available facts – which suggest that consumers may enjoy online video but they certainly aren’t ditching their set-top boxes by the truckload (just the opposite).

Yesterday, NCTA released a new White Paper entitled “Moving the Needle on Broadband: Stimulus Strategies to Spur Adoption and Extend Access Across America,” which we think will provide some helpful perspective on the issue of implementing broadband stimulus funding.

The telecommunications technology future, presented in the present. CableNET, run in partnership with CableLabs® is a showcase found on The Cable Show ’09 Floor for content and services that cable customers may see and experience in the near future.

Stories come and go in both the general media landscape and the blogosphere, but often the same issues remain on the radar, but driven by different players and events.

As Multichannel News reports, NCTA President & CEO Kyle McSlarrow today sent a personalized letter to every Member of Congress, suggesting that “serving the unserved” is the proper focus of broadband stimulus funding.

Did you go to last year’s Battle of the Bands? If you did, you will probably recognize a lot of our line up: Xpanded Bandwidth: Is back to defend their title as the band to beat.