Yankee Group: Cable’s Learning a New Four-Letter Word: IPTV

The Cable Word Problem: IP Plus TV Doesn’t Equal ‘IPTV’

Among various service providers, cable operators have been among the slowest to begin the move to an all-IP environment. There are a number of potential explanations, from the fact that they operate in a largely closed and proprietary environment for their core service of video to the significant concern over migrating legacy systems and structures that were built specifically for the provision of video. But whether cable operators like it or not, their world is changing rapidly as more competition emerges from over-the-top players and telcos, both of which have been taking advantage of the flexibility and economics of IP. The end result is that cable operators are finding new reasons to open up to IP for their core video service. Just don’t call it IPTV.

Cable operators want to treat IPTV like a four-letter word. Clearly not enamored by the prospect of adopting the nomenclature of a competitor, the cable community has come up with a number of alternatives. The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) tends to use “video over IP,” while others lean toward “IP video” or “converged IP.” Most vendors, including Motorola, Cisco, Arris and BigBand Networks, didn’t get the memo and still use the IPTV designation. Call it what you like, the trend is clear—cable operators are in a rush to migrate their networks to an all-IP infrastructure.

Keywords

IPTV, cable, video, architecture

Pages
Publish Date & Author(s)

by Vince Vittore, Principal Analyst
3 pages
March 2010