Posted 09/16/09 at 05:29:28 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Cablevision will soon be rolling out a new service, called Optimum Select, for delivering interactive TV ads. It plans to begin serving interactive ads in early October, the company announced today.

The viewers will first be confronted with a transparent banner at the bottom of their screens asking them to “Click SEL for More.” If a viewer chooses to know more, the ongoing program will be downsized by three-quarters and banished to the top right corner of the screen. The rest of the screen will then be used to display the information requested by the viewer.

"This is all about giving consumers the ability to explore more content, realize more savings and have more fun while creating a deeper and more meaningful viewing experience," Gemma Toner, senior vice president of marketing and business development at Cablevision, said in a press release.

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Posted 07/02/09 at 08:50:56 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Cablevision Systems, the 5th largest cable provider in the US, has endured a long legal battle against leading American TV programmers and providers, but now that its legal woes have finally ended, the company has the Supreme Court’s sanction to launch its network DVR system.

A person using the network DVR would be able to record programs without a dedicated, physical DVR box as the programs would be stored on a server maintained by Cablevision. Cablevision had first announced the cloud-enabled technology in 2006, however, it was soon beset and dragged to court by TV programmers and providers. Cablevision is going to roll out a limited preview of the service this summer.

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Posted 05/04/09 at 10:12:32 AM by Paul Lilly

So here's the deal: You don't want 101Mpbs broadband. And because you don't demand ultra high-speed internet, you're not the least bit impressed with Cablevision's recently announced Optimum Online Ultra, which will offer Long Island, New York residents uncapped 101Mpbs starting May 11 for $99 per month. Heck, if you cared at all about such high speeds, Verizon would have been offering a similar package two years ago, but you just don't.

Don't agree? Tell it to Eric Rabe, senior VP of Media Relations for Verizon, who posted a blog downplaying Cablevision's high-speed announcement. Rabe had some interesting things to say, essentially calling the service a sham.

"With today's technology, you don't have to break much of a sweat to deliver 100Mbps to a few customers," Rabe wrote. "But given the inherent limits of the cable platform, a cluster of bandwidth junkies living near each other could be a real problem. One estimate is that a single 101Mpbs customer would use some 60 perent of the capacity in a neighborhood. Other users? Outta luck."

Rabe went on to ask "How many customers have been storming the castle, asking for  101 megabits per second bandwidth?" Considering the lack of demand and scope, Rabe called Cablevision's announcement a "parlor trick." 

And why stop at 100Mpbs? Rabe points out that Verizon's FiOS network has the capacity to deliver 400Mbps to a single home, along with the muscle to carry the load. It also has "plenty of room for more" upstream bandwidth than the 20Mbps it currently offers.

Too bad you don't it.

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Posted 04/28/09 at 02:38:05 PM by Paul Lilly

With all the hubbub surrounding bandwidth limits and tiered internet, it would seem that dark days lay ahead for broadband. So excuse us if we refer to Cablevision as a beacon of shining light, as the cable company today became the fastest cable ISP in the US with its Optimum Online Ultra service.

Optimum Online Ultra takes advantage of the multi-channel DOCSIS 3.0 standard, and by doing so, Cablevision is able to woo customers with up to 101Mbps peak downstream and a more than respectable 15Mbps upstream. On paper, that make's Cablevision's service more than twice as fast as Comcast's 50Mbps package, but it's the lack of a bandwidth cap that may ultimately prove to be the biggest draw for consumers.

Long Island, New York residents will get first crack at the new service starting May 11, which will run $99 per month. 

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