A lot of us are wondering what the future holds for our television sets and cable boxes. Earlier this week, a report announced that Netflix usage accounts for a whopping majority of Internet traffic, proving that viewers are quickly migrating toward the Web for entertainment. But, don’t cut your cable cords just yet; two-thirds of consumers still opt for cable over broadband to provide their cable services. In fact, AT&T just launched a new feature that will allow subscribers to pause and rewind live TV on any U-verse receiver in the home. What changes do you see on the horizon for the TVs in your home?
1. IPTV operators name key STB features
May 17, 2011
By Staff Writer, ipTV news
A survey by Infonetics Research has identified the set-top box features which IPTV service providers feel are most important to them, with strong competition and the need to increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) believed to have spurred “significant” changes in STB design over the past few years.
2. Want Broadband? Odds Are, You’ll Choose Cable
May 17, 2011
By Stacey Higginbotham, GigaOM
TV ownership is on the downswing, but cable companies don’t need a pity party just yet. When it came to choosing a broadband provider in the first quarter of 2011, two out of three people chose a cable company, and one out of three chose Comcast.
3. AT&T Lets Multiroom DVR Users Pause Live TV On Any Set-Top
May 17, 2011
By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News
AT&T has begun rolling out a feature of its Total Home DVR that lets U-verse TV customers pause and rewind live TV on any U-verse receiver in the home — a capability not available through other DVRs. AT&T plans to roll it out on a market-by-market basis to all U-verse TV customers over the next few months.
4. Your Next Cable Box Might Not Be a Box At All
May 14, 2011
By Ryan Lawler, NewTeeVee
For years, subscribers to cable and other pay-TV services have been hampered by set-top boxes, which typically provide a sub-par electronic programming guide that is difficult to navigate and discover new content on. But the industry is in the midst of a paradigm shift that could see the set-top boxes disappear altogether while being replaced by connected TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles and other CE devices
5. Video viewing of Netflix accounts for up to 30 percent of online traffic
May 17, 2011
By Cecilia Kang, Washington Post
People watching videos on Netflix take up more bandwidth on the Internet than users of any other Web site or service in North America, according to a report Tuesday by broadband analytics firm Sandvine. At peak Internet hours, as much as 30 percent of online traffic is generated by Netflix subscribers who are watching movies or TV shows over their laptops, game consoles and smartphones.
