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Cable Industry Canoe Continues To Take On Water
Now interactive ad launch delayed until Spring...

Charter, Cox, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Comcast and Bright House Networks have collaboratively been working on an advertising system dubbed "canoe" since 2008. The project was initially aimed at delivering different ads to different households depending on demographic data -- a data collection effort that even involved Comcast building a 500 terabyte data warehouse designed to store data on your viewing habits.

However, the targeted ad effort was shelved back in June after cable carriers struggled to make it actually work. Instead, the cable industry spent much of 2009 working on making ads more interactive, with the hopes of launching something tangible before the year's end. They've now pushed that effort back to Spring of 2010. Canoe's development cycle is starting to look somewhat like OCAP, a CableCARD replacement more than a decade in the making.

Of course, it's not like consumers actually care whether their cable company fails at implementing a system they don't want implemented anyway. Still, it's interesting how the cable industry suddenly suffers from the worst sort of incompetence any time they try to accomplish something in unison, be it Pivot (the cable industry's last wireless, quadruple play effort) or OCAP. It makes you start to wonder what exactly is going to happen to TV Everywhere, the cable industry's semi-unified attempt to stop cord cutters and embrace Internet video.
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Anonymous88
Premium Member
join:2004-06-01
IA

1 edit

1 recommendation

Anonymous88

Premium Member

Ads

I guess they don't get it. Most people hate ads. The only 'interactivity' I like to have with an ad is me pushing the FFWD key on my remote.

The Limit
Premium Member
join:2007-09-25
Denver, CO

The Limit

Premium Member

Re: Ads

Hey now, I actually enjoy funny ads. If they want to put up some funny interactive ads, I'm all for it.

I'm not a sucker though, I'm like a crab when it comes to money, you have to peel it from my hard-crusted, horned claws before you get me to pay for something that is advertised on TV.

Anonymous88
Premium Member
join:2004-06-01
IA

Anonymous88

Premium Member

Re: Ads

Well in that case you can always watch one of those deals with funniest commercials of the year etc either online or on TV.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

1 edit

Anonymous_ to Anonymous88

Premium Member

to Anonymous88
said by Anonymous88:

I guess they don't get it. Most people hate ads. The only 'interactivity' I like to have with an ad is me pushing the FFWD key on my remote.
3 pushes of the 30sec skip is better it works on moto boxes if you program the remote

heres the "trade secret" on how to do it

The following technique can be used to map an unused or unneeded button on the "silver" remote to the 30-second skip command. Current versions of the i-Guide software will skip forward 30 seconds into a recording when this command is sent. A good choice is the 'A / Lock' button since many users don't need that function; you can feel both the '15-second-back' and '30-second-skip' buttons with one finger and move between them without looking. Another option is to reprogram the '15-second back' button, since PgDn already provides that functionality. Some users have found, however, that double-clicking the play button results in a 30-second skip forward.
Press the "Cable" button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
Press and hold the "Setup" button until the "Cable" button blinks twice.
Type in the code 994. The "Cable" button will blink twice.
Press (do not hold) the "Setup" button.
Type in the code 00173.
Press whatever button you want to map the 30-second skip command to (ex: A / Lock). The "Cable" button will blink twice if successful.

cpsycho
join:2008-06-03
Treadeu Land

cpsycho

Member

ads?

ads... what ads? I block ads, everytime there is a new ip for a new ad, it goes into my hosts file.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: ads?

said by cpsycho:

ads... what ads? I block ads, everytime there is a new ip for a new ad, it goes into my hosts file.
How does that relate to your TV or Cable box?

cpsycho
join:2008-06-03
Treadeu Land

cpsycho

Member

Re: ads?

I thought it was for internet viewing habbits.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: ads?

said by cpsycho:

I thought it was for internet viewing habbits.
No, this is about the cable tv industry.
MeKuN
join:2004-07-21
Eugene, OR

MeKuN

Member

Cable sux

So comcast wants to charge more and more every year for service and shove ads in our face on top of that? Seems like a great idea, just pushing people to start downloading more tv.
Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL

Mr Matt

Member

Monopolistic Bell System Philosophy.

The Cable industry shows the same monopolistic characteristics that the Bell System displayed before being broken up. Cable gives the customer what cable wants to give the customer, not what the customer wants. One of the problem with the current environment is that there is no real choice. Some customers have the choice of one cable system and two DBS Systems, others have no choice if in a multi-family residence. Targeted advertising is a symptom of the problem. Cable is not trying to come up with novel services to generate more revenue. They appear to want to squeeze the customers nickel until the Buffalo Shits. The squeezer for entertainment is monitoring customers viewing habits and then using targeted advertising to charge advertisers more for presenting their products. The squeezer for broadband is tracking the customers browsing habits for more targeted advertising and DNS redirection for additional squeezing of the customers nickle. The only hope for customers to be able to obtain better pricing and treatment is competition.

Camaro
Question everything
Premium Member
join:2008-04-05
Westfield, MA

Camaro

Premium Member

How about upgrades?

Wow 500tb warehouse,higher prices,more crap channels,a congestion management system,and now more flashy ads popping up in my face when i just want to surf.I'll take upgraded CMTS's and bigger fiber notes instead.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

500TB isn't that much

A 2TB drive can be had now for $200. Rack 'em up in a BackBlaze Storage Pod (Google it) and you can get 500TB in maybe four extra-tall (48U) racks. I could fit that in my bedroom if cleaned everything else out of there...power company might not like it though

Of course, you have to have redundancy and such, but still 500TB isn't as big of a deal as people make it out to be, and the cost will be low. As in, less than the CEO's salary for a year...
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

patcat88

Member

Re: 500TB isn't that much

said by iansltx:

power company might not like it though
They will love it, your meter will spin like a drill.

Nsane_iceman
Premium Member
join:2001-02-26
North Richland Hills, TX

Nsane_iceman

Premium Member

Re: 500TB isn't that much

said by patcat88:

said by iansltx:

power company might not like it though
They will love it, your meter will spin like a drill.
Yeah then they come to see if you are growing drugs...
I have a few racks of Cisco gear...

DaveDude
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey

DaveDude

Member

how about this ?

What if you only watch infomericals all day ? Or local access? i wonder what ads it would throw at you ?

MichaelTurk
@cox.net

MichaelTurk

Anon

OCAP and CableCards

You're confusing OCAP and downloadable security. OCAP was rebranded as tru2way and had nothing to do with authentication - the purpose of CableCards.

OCAP was the open cable application platform that allows developers to write an application once that would run on all cable systems. There are a siginificant number of tru2way developers and they continue to do some interesting work. HITS Axis was one example that is now part of the Comcast Media Center.

CableCards, on the other hand, are little more than a security token that authenticates your CE device on the network. There had been discussion of a better, easier model of downloadable security that is on hold largely because the FCC forced the cable industry to implement CableCards even though they knew it was an inferior technology.

In it's inquiry into the set-top market, the current FCC leadership recently acknowledged that decision was a mistake and has done nothing to benefit consumers.

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536

Premium Member

they don't get it

We HATE ads!
Maze
join:2006-02-02
USA, NYC

Maze

Member

Content producers getting paid for labor

It probably costs tons of money for the production and post productions. Cable is only passing it to the payers and adding its own $. Some form of other (no ads) compensation plan for the work that goes into making the product will need to be created in this internet age eventually. We are like 10 years almost into it and no way to work this out? Since people do not want ads (like me too). No money no capitalistic motivation to create non home stuff. This method though that they are using now though sells too much privacy away. In form to target people to eventually act on the ads.

Almost everything seems like a dying breed or even to consider as a lucrative career. Want to do that? oops chopped and that? chopped.

Except healthcare of course. In fact, their are so many medical offices in my area (MRI, stand up MRI, foot Doctor, Dentist, Internist, Gynecologists, etc overload) and pharmacies that I can drown in them. Yet, anything else does not exist not even a decent clothing store nearby! Next visit to the doctor without cloths on and out of job. :-D

Augustus III
If Only Rome Could See Us Now....
join:2001-01-25
Gainesville, GA

Augustus III

Member

Re: Content producers getting paid for labor

Uhm stay on topic and lay off the doomsday obsolence theories!