Comcast Wholesale (NASDAQ: CMCSA) will offer Rovi's video programming guide for digital terminal adapters (DTAs) to its HITS affiliate MSOs, enabling consumers with ages-old analog TV tech to experience a next-generation program guide.
The Rovi DTA Guide is an interactive program guide created specifically for digital terminal adapters for both standard definition and HD signals. Comcast Wholesale's HITS service is an MPEG-2 HD and SD cable distribution platform used to deliver linear cable to operators of all sizes.
DTAs are simple digital-to-analog converters that allow consumers with older, analog sets to watch digital channels. As they transition to an all-digital world, MSOs including Comcast and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) have deployed millions of these.
Comcast Wholesale will offer the Rovi DTA Guide to MSOs signed up for its National Authorization Service conditional access platform.
Pennsylvania's Armstrong announced last year it would offer Rovi's DTA. Suddenlink Communications, the nation's seventh-largest MSO, joined Armstrong earlier this year in teaming with Rovi for its DTA.
"DTAs allow operators to save bandwidth by eliminating the majority of their analog feeds," said Leslie Russell, VP for Comcast Wholesale. "The Rovi guide will further enhance the viewer experience and offer new content discovery opportunities to customers using DTAs."
Comcast made the announcement today at the Independent Show in Boston.
For more:
- read this Comcast Wholesale press release
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