[CAnet - news] Cable companies confront bandwidth crunch as networks move TV shows to Internet

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
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 [Here is an excellent article from Lightreading on the bandwidth challenges
facing cable companies.  They are starting to realize that their HFC plant
may not be sufficient to handle this tsunami of video data and new
applications and they too must start to explore fiber to the home (but I
hope that will not be sucked into various PONzi technologies that are being
promoted. What is also interesting is the plans for CBS to move its prime
time TV shows to the Internet a day before they are broadcast on TV. Thanks
to Dirk van der Woude for this pointer. Some excerpts from the Lightreading
article -- BSA]

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=115344&print=true

Cable Confronts Bandwidth Crunch 
 
Shaking off two years of disbelief and dismay, the cable industry has
finally started dealing with the prospect of an impending bandwidth
shortage. 

They're even weighing such previously unthinkable moves as building
fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks and adopting PON architecture, just like
some of the big phone companies. 

...the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers 's annual Emerging
Technologies show, found cable officials soberly agreeing that skyrocketing
subscriber bandwidth consumption is threatening to overwhelm even their
fattest broadband pipes. 

...panelists blamed the startling increase in Internet video use over the
past couple of years. In particular, they focused on the sudden rise of
YouTube Inc. , which now serves up 120 million video streams per day and
draws more than 34 million unique users each month to its Website. 

Jeff Binder, senior director of Motorola Inc. warned that the big broadcast
networks may soon pose an even greater threat to the cable industry's video
business model than YouTube. He cited CBS Corp. plans to stream its
primetime programs on the Web for no charge a day earlier than their first
run on the TV network. 

Knorr, whose cable system serves a major college town, said he's already
seeing early signs that younger consumers are opting for Internet video
downloads over traditional cable video service. In Lawrence, home to the
University of Kansas, 5,000 of the cable system's 40,000 subscribers only
take high-speed data service. 



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