HomePNA Blog

"Here take it All! But Please Don't Take my Cable Service"

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing and PR

In the obnoxious theme of "we told you so," our fellow Americans still seem to be doing exactly what we said they would be doing during the recession – going home for their entertainment. A survey from Amplitude Research said 70 percent of 600 respondents said they plan to keep current cable and satellite television service this year. On the flipside, only two of the 600 said they plan to drop their multichannel video service to cut household expenses; however, 15 percent said they intended to downgrade to a lower-priced video subscription service.

Also interesting, the study found that a "substantial number" said they are turning to the Web to watch video and about 32 percent said they "regularly watch video from Web sites such as Hulu, YouTube and iTunes."

We think we can safely say that with the vast majority continuing to keep their home entertainment service despite what's going on with their pocketbooks, the home entertainment industry will not be taking any real hits in 2009 and will grow at a steady, even pace. We also think the economic environment may be accelerating the move away from the traditional cable model and toward an on-demand model that relies more and more on over-the-top Web content delivered to your TV over IPTV and a home network.

Hold Onto Your Seat

All you armchair football fanatics hold onto your beers. Now you can sit in your den and watch your AT&T U-verse IPTV service and enjoy the integrated features of Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football. Word on the street suggests it’s “the best IPTV application ever invented,” according to writer Dan O’Shea. The feature allows users to track teams and players while watching the game. It’s kind of the ultimate interactive picture-in-picture capability custom designed for all those football fans that enjoy watching the game more than playing it.

You can bet that as more of these interactive features emerge via service provider’s new IPTV capabilities, more and more cable subscribers will be turning over their old service to the “coolest” entertainment experience around. Of course, all of this bodes well for HomePNA, which is the technology standard being used by U-Verse. If the football viewer is a fan then you can say we’re a fan too!

I Want my IPTV

Want to know how television viewers are getting their TV services from these days? Not only from the usual suspects – traditional television and cable. Growth statistics in the area of next-generation IPTV services show a rapidly growing subscriber base. Consider a recent report posted by MultiChannel News, which states, “U-verse TV had a net subscriber gain of 148,000 for the quarter, adding to the 231,000 subscribers AT&T reported at the end of 2007. AT&T said it expects a further ramp in the quarters ahead and reiterated that it expects to sign up more than 1 million subscribers by the end of 2008.”

Those telecommunications service providers not offering IPTV to their subscribers are missing a huge opportunity. While some critics suggest that consumers are not particularly interested in getting IPTV as a single offering, IPTV as part of a bundle makes an attractive package indeed. Carriers offer voice, data and video to consumers at a reduced bundle cost while saving money by reducing the operating costs of generating and tracking multiple bills.

Say “Yes Way” to TV My Way with Follow Me TV

Get ready for complete control over your television-watching experience – the next stage is beginning. Remember when TiVo was first announced? Remember your early adopter nerdy friends telling you that once you try “time-shifting” you won’t be able to live without it? Like time-shifting, “follow-me TV” has the earmarks of another got-to-have feature. Although products offering limited follow-me capability have been around for years, new networked IP set-top box/DVRs will make it more convenient, more capable and certainly much more common.

Users start with an IP set-top box. IP set-top boxes use home networking such as HomePNA 3.1 and Internet protocols to receive video from the service provider. Add a hard-disk drive and you have a set-top box/digital video recorder (DVR). Now download special “middleware” and the software that makes your IPTV work, and you have a networked DVR. If you are an AT&T U-verse customer, you already have a DVR. AT&T has announced that later this year it will be turning on the networked DVR feature – in other words they will download new middleware into your IP set-top box/DVR while you sleep turning it into a networked DVR.

The networked DVR enables follow-me TV. With follow-me Mom could literally start watching her favorite show Dancing with the Stars in the living room, pause it, move to the kitchen, continue watching it, stop it, record it, and finish watching it the next day. Another family member could simultaneously watch the same show in another room of the house and do all of the same activities without disrupting Mom’s television-watching experience. Eventually follow-me TV will be extended to the “screen” located on your mobile phone as well allowing you to dance with the stars anywhere.

Networked DVRs and follow-me TV represents only a fraction of the forthcoming IPTV experiences soon to hit a home theater near you. Not only will U-verse offer a networked DVR but it recently introduced an “over the top” feature – AT&T Online Photos from Flickr on AT&T U-verse TV (see earlier blog). HomePNA’s existing wire home networking standard plays a prominent and important role in enabling all of these features without the muss or fuss of installing new wires.

HomePNA Member, AT&T’s CoolerThanCable Blog Tells The U-verse Story – And Much More

It’s great to see HomePNA member, AT&T’s CoolerThanCable blog evolve since its launch in August.

Maintained by AT&T’s Corporate Communications team, CoolerThanCable offers commentary on AT&T U-verse news in a voice that you won’t see in their traditional press releases.

While AT&T states that the blog is aimed at being a resource for the media and analysts, we think it’s a terrific source for HomePNA members to gain further insight on the company’s three-screen strategy.

One post that recently caught our eye was the reference to AT&T’s John Stankey’s presentation in February citing the company’s pending Whole Home DVR- a key differentiating element of what makes the U-verse service offering and the HomePNA standard the future of home communications and entertainment services.

Make sure you have AT&T’s CoolerThanCable blog on your industry reading list!