Sound Off!: The iTV Doctor and Todd Walker, SVP of Video Product Development at Comcast, Debate the Future of the Motorola DCT 2000

Dear Readers: Today we introduce a new feature column: Sound Off! We intend to skewer some of the sacred cows of our business, with industry notables taking positions on either side of the arguments.

Today's topic: Should the Motorola DCT 2000 be euthanized? The iTV Doctor will take the argument FOR euthanasia of the DCT 2000. Taking the argument AGAINST euthanasia of the DCT 2000 is Todd Walker, SVP of video product development at Comcast.

The iTV Doctor: The Motorola DCT 2000 has outlived its usefulness. At the end of the last century, the DCT 2000 was a terrific innovation in cable television, permitting the rapid expansion of digital cable services nationwide. But in the years since its introduction, the industry, the consumers and--most importantly--the competition have moved well past the limited capabilities of that original digital set-top box. We're rolling out high-end boxes as fast as we can manufacture them, and now even senior cable execs admit that only about a third of the deployed DCT 2000 boxes are currently being used as the primary (read: "living room") unit. So we have fewer than 5 million outdated boxes controlling the consumer experience for tens of millions of viewers throughout the industry.

Telco, satellite, and OTT providers can deliver a better interactive consumer experience. Even CELL PHONES can do better! But my biggest concern is that we spend all the time and money to achieve wide deployment of an inferior product (when put side-by-side with the competition), and the consumer simply responds, "Is that all there is?"

Since the introduction of digital cable, the most widely used interactive application has been the EPG, followed closely by VOD. And both of those experiences are intuitive and natural for our subscribers. And while it's comforting to think of cable as the fall-back, mass-audience, it's-so-easy way to watch television, there are just too many people who want to take our business away from us.

As explained by the Canoe folks at the "EBIF Intensive" day at the TV of Tomorrow show last month, the EBIF standard allows for high-end boxes to receive more sophisticated applications. The target dates for that capability appear to reside in that nebulous "18-months-ish" range. And that simply may be too late.

We should divert the resources being allocated to the DCT 2000, and accelerate our deployment of the best consumer experience possible to the boxes that are primary in the vast majority of subscriber homes. The DCT 2000 has seen its day. May it Rest In Peace.

Todd Walker: Good points, Doc, but no one here is sick. While the DCT 2000 may be a little old and gray, it still does much of the same work as its younger counterparts. Please let me expound...

The DCT 2000 can do the following:

• Run the Comcast (and many other) IPG's which have very high satisfaction rates with our customers,
• Provide for premium services, PPV, VOD, up-sell and many other features,
• Provide for an expanded offering of 20,000+ VOD titles,
• Enable cross-platform applications,
• Provide for iTV applications to be made available to nearly all deployed STB's.

Sure, there are limitations on the amount of programming data that these STB's can hold, and they have limited graphics and color capabilities. However, these are not the only STB's with these limitations. DCT 2500's and DCT 700's have similar kinds of limitations. Additionally, EBIF apps that have been created by Canoe, Home Shopping Network, ESPN, and CNN look great on all STB's, including DCT 2000's.

As you stated, DCT 2000's are generally used to support additional outlets and not primary TV's. They work very well for this type of installation and can continue to do so, even without material software maintenance. One also must consider the potential cost and disruption to the customer that replacing these boxes would entail. To replace all of the DCT 2000's deployed today would cost billions!!!

So don't pull the plug on the DCT 2000 just yet, Doc. It's still a very viable option.

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The iTV Doctor is *Rick Howe*, who provides interactive television consulting services to programmers and advertisers. He is the recipient of a CTAM Tami Award for retention marketing and this year was nominated to Cable Pioneers. He is also the co-author of a patent for the use of multiscreen mosaics in EPG's. Endorsed by top cable and satellite distributors, "Dr" Howe still makes house calls, and the first visit is always free. His services include product development, distribution strategy and the development of low-cost interactive applications for rapid deployment across all platforms. Have a question for the iTV Doctor? Email him at itvdoctor@itvt.com