by Paul Gagnon, Director of North America TV Market Research

Word just surfaced that Sony has joined the ranks of Panasonic, LGE and Samsung in signing agreements with major cable operators to support tru2way bidirectional digital cable. Negotiations on “two-way” digital cable products have been underway for years between CE manufacturers and the cable industry, with little progress until this year. Many in the industry have a sour taste in their mouth from the weak support cable operators gave to ‘one-way’ (CableCARD) digital cable products, not too surprising considering there was no VOD (Video On Demand) revenue stream possible from those products. One can’t help but wonder how strong the support will be this time around, though the revenue potential from tru2way products, which support VOD and full program guides, is far more attractive. The entire effort is a way to allow consumers freedom of choice in how they receive their digital content from cable, but the battle has been over control of the experience (CE company or Cable company) and how digital usage rights are managed and protected. Clearly not easy issues to work around.

It’s now up to the cable companies to deliver enough tru2way supported customers to make it worth while for the CE manufacturers to introduce products that support the standard and not have to worry about customer service issues. Who want’s to sell a product that features a technology not supported by the majority of service providers? CableCARD quickly disappeared from subsequent generations of TV’s after the initial products were launched.