Comcast Corp. this week announced new relationships with two consumer electronic companies – Panasonic Corp. of North America and Samsung Electronics America Inc. – for set-top boxes.
This means Comcast now is working with six set-top box suppliers. The others are Motorola Inc., Pace Micro Technology plc, Scientific Atlanta Inc. and Digeo Inc. (for trials only).
“What it really means for Comcast is we are embracing CE,” said Steve Silva, executive vice president of new business development for Comcast.
Being closer with CE vendors like Panasonic and Samsung, he said, allows Comcast to better gauge what’s developing in consumer technologies, including TVs, portable video players, cellular phones and more, so the company can be on track with its strategy when new devices become available.
The Panasonic deal is for 250,000 high-definition, DVR-capable set-top boxes with a minimum of 250GB storage capacity, which essentially doubles the amount of DVR storage available on Comcast DVR set-top boxes. In addition, these boxes will have both MPEG-2 and H.264 decoder capabilities. The H.264 capabilities will offer higher video compression rates and could let consumers use their televisions to enjoy media elements commonly available on the Internet.
Comcast will have the option to acquire up to a total of 1 million set-top boxes in the first year, with options for additional boxes in subsequent years. The initial 250,000 set-top boxes will be supplied with Panasonic’s Open Cable Application Platform middleware so they will be able to interact with Panasonic plasma TVs, home theater systems and DVD recorders.
While Comcast and Samsung expect to work together on a variety of products, the deal initially is for digital, standard-definition set-top boxes. Comcast will use those set-tops to move laggards still using analog TV services onto its newer digital services, Silva said. He would not provide the price tag for the Samsung set-top boxes, but indicated they are relatively low-end. “These devices are very cost-effective for us as well as being highly functional,” he said.
Beginning in 2007, Comcast will purchase 200,000 – and, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, an additional 500,000 – OCAP-compliant digital cable set-top boxes that will be capable of running Advanced Video Codecs, such as all facets of MPEG4, including H.264 and MPEG2. In addition, these devices are designed to leverage DOCSIS 2.0 and USB 2.0 to enable advanced interactive applications.
These devices are part of Comcast’s new series of digital set-top boxes referred to as RNG.
Silva mentioned the importance of allowing set-top boxes to interoperate with CE devices, including digital cameras, portable media players and cell phones. “We are now realizing more than ever the importance of working together with the consumer electronics industry,” he said.
Comcast Corp. www.comcast.com
Digeo Inc. www.digeo.com
Motorola Inc. www.motorola.com
Pace Micro Technology plc www.pacemicro.com
Panasonic Corp. of North America www.panasonic.com
Samsung Electronics America Inc. www.samsung.com
Scientific Atlanta Inc. www.sciatl.com
