CES 2008

CableLabs Crashes the Consumer Electronics Party with ‘‘Tru2way’’ Branding

| Jan 9, 2008 | Digital Media Infrastructure | Show Update

| Analyst: Yoav Schreiber

Current Perspective: Positive/Neutral Vendor Importance: Moderate Market Impact: Moderate/High

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Event Summary

January 7, 2008 -- CableLabs, the cable television industry’s R&D consortium, has adopted the “tru2way” brand to succeed “OpenCable Platform” for the marketing and branding of the interactive video platform to enable televisions, set-top-boxes (STBs), and other devices to receive two-way digital cable services such as video on demand (VoD) and interactive advertising. The tru2way technology has been licensed by several dozen application developers and equipment manufacturers, and it has received commitments from major cable operators for deployment support by the end of 2008.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on CableLabs officially announcing that its “OpenCable Platform” for two-way access to digital cable services has been rebranded “tru2way” because, with the new brand name, impressive industry backing, and supported products – all announced at CES – CableLabs has bolstered its lobbying campaign to gain FCC favor over a rival proposal by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). With broad support for tru2way technology, interactive digital cable applications would be able to operate seamlessly on diverse cable systems, providing a competitive playing field for retail market digital STBs. A common middleware layer will also enable cable platforms to be as flexible as equivalent telco-based IPTV platforms.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to CableLabs, since the announcement was anticipated by the industry and the new brand name does not materially alter the positioning of the proposed CableLabs tru2way standard vis-à-vis the CEA’s “digital ready plus” (DCR+) proposal. However, by announcing the momentum of industry backing and deployment commitments from major cable operators to support the tru2way platform by the end of 2008, CableLabs has established market-based facts on the ground that favor its proposition.

• Market Impact: Moderate to high on the overall cable infrastructure market, including the cable headend, STB, and consumer electronic device arenas, as well as the rival IPTV middleware segments. Regardless of the outcome of a potential FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), with major cable operators such as Time Warner, Comcast, Cox, and Cablevision committed to supporting tru2way technology in service areas covering more than 90 million U.S. homes in 145 markets by the end of 2008, broad industry adoption is almost a foregone conclusion. For example, at CES 2008, Panasonic already unveiled a tru2way-powered portable DVR for Comcast customers.

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