multiview

Insight Communications, a cable operator that serves markets in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio (note: it has approximately 750,000 customers and is the ninth-largest cable operator in the US), last week announced the launch of new "QuickView" multiscreen mosaic channels that are available at no extra charge to customers equipped with HD DVR's. The mosaic channels each present viewers with miniscreens of a set of channels in a specific genre: channel 100 showcases basic entertainment channels, channel 300 children's channels, channel 400 news channels, channel 500 sports channels, and channel 800 music channels.

AT&T on Tuesday unveiled My Multiview, a new interactive TV app for its Microsoft Mediaroom-powered U-verse TV IPTV platform that allows viewers to select the channels for their own Multiview (multiscreen mosaic) display (note: U-verse TV launched Sports, Kids and News Multiview apps in the fall of 2009, and this year has offered special Multiview apps for a number of major sporting events).

Fabless semiconductor company, Entropic Communications, announced Monday that its silicon has been selected by DirecTV for integration into a new line of set-top boxes that will offer new coax-based networking capabilities, including multi-room viewing. The new, HD "H-24 DVR" boxes (of which client and server versions will be offered) are currently in production, the company says, and will be in DirecTV customer homes starting later this quarter.