“Comcast Plans to Bring TV Shows to Your Phone,” a Reuters story trumpeted yesterday, which had many of us here at GigaOM really excited — me especially, since this is exactly the sort of thing that I’ve said the cable guys should be doing if they want to launch wireless products. However, a quick look at the transcript of the executive comments that prompted the Reuters story shows that Comcast isn’t bringing TV to wireless phones anytime soon. Nor is voice of interest when it comes to the cable provider’s wireless efforts, as the Reuters story also stated. So far Comcast’s wireless plans are centered around delivering data, mostly to mobile computers.

According to a transcript of Comcast Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia conference, he said: Continue »

Two weeks ago, an appeals court shot down an FCC rule that had prevented any single cable company from controlling more than 30 percent of U.S. TV subscriptions. While a few reports noted then that the decision could spur consolidation in the cable industry, the discussion didn’t gain much traction until this week, when a Citigroup analyst argued in favor of a merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. But there was also this comment from Steve Burke, Comcast’s chief operating officer, who after noting that while the company might make a modest acquisition at the right price, said, “We don’t wake up every day saying, how do we get bigger in cable?”

Right. And drug addicts don’t wake up every morning saying, “How do I get a fix?” After all, what company wouldn’t want more revenue, or a bigger market share? It was in Comcast’s interest to fight this case to an appeals court, just as it’s in its interest to dampen speculation of any pending deal, which could spark a rally in the companies’ shares and as such, make a tie-up that much more expensive. But in the end, Comcast, as well as other pay-TV companies that might see the ruling as a green light for acquisitions, may not be helped by being bigger. Broadband cable and satellite companies are already facing competition from the web as more video content, and more eyeballs, migrate there. Continue »

With venture capitalists still leery about telecommunications investments after the fallout from the dot-com crash, telcos should beef up their R&D if they want to stay competitive, Dave Burstein, a longtime telecommunications reporter, wrote yesterday. Two percent of sales would be a good start, he suggests, which would mean $2.48 billion and $1.94 billion for AT&T and Verizon, respectively. AT&T spent $892 million in 2008, down from $985 million in 2007. Verizon doesn’t disclose its R&D spending, but analyst Chris King at Stifel Nicolaus estimates it’s very little, as most of its vendors do the work.

In a time when technology moves faster than ever and so much innovation is built upon the very service the telcos provide, you’d think they’d step up their efforts at developing new ways to deliver better broadband through wires or wirelessly. Think about the history of Bell Labs, which pioneered inventions such as the transistor and the laser. Yet, the innovation is coming from startups and the equipment vendors, or even from companies such as Google and Microsoft, which are trying to build a device to deliver broadband in part of the digital television spectrum. Continue »

Much of the increased uptake on the wireless web is being credited to Apple’s iPhone, but Opera continues to make impressive gains with its Mini browser. In particular, users are increasingly tuning in to YouTube via Opera Mini.

The Norwegian developer said today that 29.1 million people used Opera Mini in July, marking an almost 10 percent rise over June figures and a 145 percent increase over July 2008. Page views increased more than 15 percent from the previous month, topping the 12 billion-mark, and more than doubling the number from July 2008. Predictably, data consumption through Mini in the most recent month increased at similar rates — to 187 million MB dowloaded. Continue »

When it comes to buying content, consumers prefer to pick a bundle rather than buy à la carte, Daniel Taylor, a GigaOM Pro analyst, argues over at NewTeeVee. To bolster his argument, he used the example of paying for cable, rather than individual channels (even though folks are still agitating for à la carte pricing) and he discounts Apple’s impact on album sales as consumers buy only singles through iTunes. Instead, he focuses on the fact that most of a consumer’s household income goes toward buying bundled services rather than individual media products: Continue »

Comcast may take on more than its network can handle by offering its cable TV via the web under its TV Everywhere program, which has me wondering if cable providers will weather the influx of TV content delivered over their data network as opposed to their video network. Unsurprisingly, Comcast and industry equipment vendors say the network will be just fine for TV Everywhere delivered as so-called over-the-top video.

But streaming potentially popular cable TV content over cable companies’ limited pipes could cause problems for the providers. Continue »

LG's Bluetooth-enabled TV

Broadcom today said its Bluetooth radios are inside a new line of televisions from LG Electronics. Earlier this year, its Bluetooth radios made it into televisions from Sharp, while Samsung also has a Bluetooth-enabled TV. The movement to put Bluetooth — a radio technology popular in cell phones, cars and PCs — into television is gaining momentum, and for Bluetooth radio makers like Broadcom and CSR, it opens up a potentially valuable, new market. DisplaySearch, an analyst firm, expects 205.3 million TVs will sell worldwide in 2009.

Bluetooth on the TV gives consumers the ability to use their cell phones as a remote control, connect wireless headsets to the TV, and stream music from an iPod or other MP3 player to their television or speakers attached to their TV, all without a wire. A representative for the Bluetooth Special Interest Group expects to see more Bluetooth TVs coming to market later this year or early next year. Continue »