Recently NetFlix passed Comcast in terms of contracts, so software is eating the cable industry.
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OpenCable, as this initiative is called, is supposed to help the cable industry avoid two dangers.
Yet if cable accepts, Microsoft will overnight become the most powerful firm in the cable industry.
Microsoft will also get MediaOne's 29.9% stake in Telewest, strengthening its interest in the British cable industry.
The same strategy had been tried by the cable industry a decade ago and had proved disastrous.
The cable industry's instinct was to plead to government to see off each threat using its regulatory powers.
Thanks to the Internet, the cable industry has a new growth franchise, as it upgrades its networks for interactivity.
Compare the openness of the Internet with the way the cable industry operates.
While Microsoft is playing the cable companies off against each other, the cable industry is dallying with software companies.
Due to the lack of use, the cable industry asked that the rules be updated to require an IP interface instead.
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Investors, who have punished the cable industry in general for its delayed rollout of new services, have thrashed Adelphia in particular.
Disruption, that buzzword that gets tech geeks and venture capitalists excited, has all its usual negative connotations for the cable industry.
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The cable industry has been flirting with the idea of getting into wireless for years, but hasn't had a clear strategy.
Not everyone agrees that a pro-Brand X ruling would seriously damage the cable industry, since phone companies haven't been crippled by line-sharing.
As a rule, the idea of direct subscriptions terrifies the cable industry.
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The cable industry's fight to prevent phone companies from delivering TV service to customers is but the latest example of this deadly obtuseness.
The success of these two shows will have major implications for the future of original Web programming, not to mention the cable industry.
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"This is a major opportunity for TiVo, the cable industry and television viewers alike, " said Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo Inc.
We're working with the cable industry and the telco industry on that piece and then we do all this server software for them.
The cable industry reckons that, if it buys from a range of suppliers, it will never risk being captured by any single one.
Worse is the dilemma posed by Mr Gates, who wants the entire cable industry to accept the Microsoft standard for the set-top box.
"Wireless is a conundrum for the cable industry in how we take that first step, " Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said at an industry event last week.
The cable industry has been successful so far poaching voice customers from phone companies with one-bill bundles of TV service, high-speed Internet access and cheap, all-you-can-eat VoIP.
Evidently two years wasn't long enough to find an acceptable industry standard stack to deliver video over IP, so TiVo and the cable industry requested an extension.
ENGADGET: FCC clarifies set-top box IP interface requirement and extends deadline to 2014
The cable industry continues to see stagnant TV subscriber growth, thanks to the weak economy, anemic new home sales, market saturation and the rise of Internet video options.
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Furthermore, if HBO broke away from cable they would have to do so by ending lucrative contracts with the cable industry that make their business model possible.
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In late 2004, Pagano was also bestowed with the honor of being named as one of the honorees in the 2004 CableFAX 100, profiling top cable industry influences.
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But the fact remains that the cable industry holds the key to Microsoft's future in large part, so it's probably no coincidence that he's parking his money there.
The U.S. market may one day open up for Narayan if the cable industry settles on a standard for interactive TV, which regulators have said must happen by 2005.
The cable industry is aggressively competing with the parent companies of Verizon Wireless-- Verizon Communications and Vodafone--and Cingular--SBC Communications and BellSouth--and it's tough to imagine a tie-up between them.
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