Comcast Media Center Launches VOD "Express Lane"

At the NCTA Cable Show in Washington, DC last week, Comcast Media Center (CMC) launched Express Lane, a new service for VOD content providers. According to CMC, the service offers automated workflows and remote management capabilities that enable TV networks, advertisers, cable MSO's and other content services companies to accelerate the delivery of VOD content to "near real time" by publishing that content directly into the company's VOD distribution platform (currently reaches around 30 million VOD-enabled households across the US). In addition, CMC says, Express Lane allows VOD content providers to direct the delivery of individual VOD assets to specific cable-system headends, thus making it easier to produce and deliver content for particular markets; and also allows VOD programming to be posted to a "bull pen" where content providers can preview it and select which cable systems should receive a particular VOD asset. "Express Lane represents a significant breakthrough in the delivery of on-demand content by accelerating the delivery of personally relevant content to the industry's VOD customers," CMC COO, Gary Traver, said in a prepared statement. "Moreover, Express Lane uses the CMC's best-in-class and 'trusted source' content-management technology to provide greater flexibility and efficiency for VOD content distribution, which reduces our clients' operating costs while improving their time-to-market capabilities."

CMC also used the Cable Show to announce that it has entered into an agreement with tcommerce specialist, iCueTV, to validate the latter's flagship ETS platform (note: iCueTV bills the ETS backend fulfillment platform as offering a complete suite of API's, so that other set-top box applications and networks can easily plug into it, in order to enable product purchases, RFI fulfillment and voting/polling across any network or channel for any MSO). iCueTV says the deal moves it closer to its first market deployment, as it paves the way for cable operators that have signed on as beta sites for CMC's HITS AxIS service to test tcommerce and RFI fulfillment applications integrated into the ETS platform (Note: HITS AxIS--whose name stands for "Headend In The Sky Advanced Interactive Services," and which was developed in collaboration with Vidiom and TVWorks--is a centralized platform that operates on the NAS and DAC headend-management platforms and that is billed as being designed to support developers of advanced tru2way and ETV/EBIF ITV applications and to facilitate the deployment and management of those applications on cable systems serving small- to mid-sized markets. It offers product development services, including business modeling, licensing and application testing; deployment services, including configuration, hosting, affiliate sales, contract management and product launches; and operations management services, including application and network monitoring, updates and upgrades management, billing services, customer and technical support, training, disaster recovery and more.) "This agreement is a major milestone for iCueTV and a great testament of our vision where our application for the next phase in television is poised for deployment," iCueTV president and CTO, Michael Huegel, said in a prepared statement. "Our relationship with the Comcast Media Center's HITS AxIS service allows our teams to work closely together to conquer the most difficult challenges with speed and agility." Added CMC's Gary Traver: "iCueTV demonstrates the ability of ETV applications to provide cable system operators and television programming networks with near-term revenue generation opportunities. We are looking forward to working with the iCueTV and itaas teams in helping our HITS AxIS affiliates to realize that potential concurrent with their initial ETV deployments."

At the Cable Show, iCueTV teamed with itaas to showcase what it billed as "the first fully operational tcommerce application and backend fulfillment solution that successfully meets the open cable specifications set by CableLabs for enhanced television programming (ETV)." The demo, which used the TVWorks ETV platform, consisted of two tcommerce apps and an RFI solution from iCueTV and itaas interfacing with iCueTV's ETS fulfillment backend through a suite of API's. The apps were delivered live from CMC's ITV operations center in Denver via the local Comcast Cable headend to a CMC HITS AxIS demo at the Cable Show's "Broadband Nation" exhibit. The apps allowed visitors to the demo to order DVD's or Blu-ray discs of popular TV shows using a PIN based on a pre-established profile registration process (visitors pre-registered by having their Cable Show badges scanned at the CMC or iCueTV exhibits).

In other recent interactive TV-related news from CMC:
--At the NCTA Cable Show last week, the company teamed with multiple vendors (in addition to iCueTV) to demo advanced interactive TV applications, based on the ETV standard, that are currently being tested, launched and supported by the HITS AxIS platform (note: for more on this, see the story published on itvt.com March 31st).
--Last month, CMC announced a joint marketing agreement with enableTV, the interactive TV software and services company that was spun out of Vidiom Systems last year by Vidiom founder, Tim Wahlers (see [itvt] Issue xxx), under which the companies will collaborate to support the development and delivery of ITV applications built on ETV/EBIF and tru2way technology and designed for distribution via CMC's HITS AxIS service. One of the first joint activities undertaken by CMC and enableTV was to co-exhibit at [itvt]'s TV of Tomorrow Show in San Francisco. "We are pleased to partner with the CMC to expedite the delivery of interactive services to the industry through the HITS AxIS service by providing developer solutions and testing services in our independent test lab," Tim Wahlers, enableTV's president and CEO, said in a prepared statement. "Having both companies appear together at TVOT is a great way to demonstrate how our combined resources can help the developer community to quickly and easily become a part of the emerging cable ITV market."
--At the NCTC Winter Education Conference in Charlotte, NC, February, CMC announced that Bend Broadband, Metrocast Communications and Sunflower Broadband have joined Buckeye CableSystem as beta sites for interactive TV applications that are being tested, launched and supported by HITS AxIS. "The HITS AxIS beta sites are at the forefront of efforts to support the widespread deployment of advanced interactive services, and we are very pleased to be collaborating with these industry pioneers on expanding their revenue opportunities through offering advanced interactive video services," CMC's Gary Traver said in a prepared statement. "By launching ETV applications that run on current cable system architecture, we can foster greater participation by the development community and collectively work together to realize the potential of the more robust tru2way platform." Added Jim Brown, director of engineering at Buckeye CableSystem: "Our work with CMC on the HITS AxIS project thus far has been successful and has provided us an opportunity to get a better sense of some of the ETV applications that are out there and how they might interact with our network. It has also begun to give our testers an opportunity to provide us feedback on the applications. We hope to come away from this beta test period with a good sense of the values the HITS AxIS platform brings to the table."