April, 2003 Issue
THE VIODI VIEW
In this Issue: 7 Degrees of Separation, NLC Users Group, Video Promotion and More...
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A foggy cold day by the water. No, it’s not San Francisco in July, like our OPASTCO friends experienced last year, it was Myrtle Beach in April. People generally were not complaining, as they wanted to learn about the latest developments with the Next Level product and how it can be applied to iTV and VOD applications.
And it was very active, as there was a mix of telcos considering the deployment of and those who have already deployed cable television services. This conference, which almost doubled its attendance compared to last August’s meeting, provides further evidence of the seriousness of telcos and their plan for adding advanced, interactive digital television services.
This may be the last User’s Group meeting with the NLC moniker, as the era of the Motorola Users’ Group (MUG?) could be on the horizon. I came away from the conference believing that Motorola's acquisition of Next Level has several significant implications including:
- The Motorola brand provides credibility to the entire telco video business, which is good for the industry.
- Motorola potentially has a new sales channel for its cable television products, while the NLC product could potentially be sold to the MSOs through Motorola’s existing cable sales force.
- If Motorola can successfully execute its post takeover plan, then it will cement their position as the market leader for video over copper in the independent telco space – just like the cable market, they could be the market leader for both the loop (distribution), high speed Internet (cable modem) and residential gateway (set-top).
In my view, it will be critical for other players in the industry to
quickly pull together integrated solutions that work and address the challenges
faced by the independent telcos or else Motorola will be the dominant
player in this segment for a long time.
Please forward this free publication to anyone you know who is involved in some way with independent telephone companies.
Mission of the Viodi View:
In this on-line publication, we share our analysis, opinions and direction on the interactive television news and views that we believe will be of interest and use to our friends associated directly or indirectly with independent telephone companies. For more information on Viodi's efforts to unite the independent telephone company's interactive television efforts, please send an email to [email protected].
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The Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] and its associates used their best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, the Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.
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