Tru2way Stalls At Retail

Electronics Makers Are Shunning Two-Way Cable Specification

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 8/2/2010 12:01:00 AM

Cable’s Tru2way initiative has fizzled on the retail front, more than two years after the industry reached what was billed as a historic “plug-and-play” deal among major MSOs and several big consumer-electronics manufacturers.

The hope was that Tru2way, a specification developed and maintained by CableLabs, would unleash a panoply of devices that could access cable’s two-way video services, such as on-screen guides and interactive TV apps, without the need for an operator-leased set-top. For cable operators, Tru2way also was seen as a way to meet the Federal Communications Commission’s requirements to provide open access to TV services from third-party devices.

But Panasonic, the only CE company that had offered Tru2way-enabled products at retail, confirmed last week that it is no longer selling HDTVs compatible with the two-way cable technology from store shelves in three Comcast markets (Denver, Atlanta and Chicago).

“We currently have no Tru2way products at retail, and there are no announced release dates for Panasonic Tru2way retail products at this time,” the company said in a statement.

NCTA ‘DISAPPOINTED’
Under the June 2008 accord and subsequent agreements — signed with CE manufacturers including Sony, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Cablevision Systems and Bright House Networks committed to supporting Tru2way across their footprints by mid-2009 (while Charter Communications was given until July 2010).

“We’re disappointed, I think that’s obvious, in the failure of CE [companies] to show up as we had hoped,” National Cable & Telecommunications Association general counsel Neal Goldberg said.

Panasonic, though, hasn’t abandoned Tru2way. Jeff Cove, Panasonic’s vice president of technology and alliances, said the company has products in the works, including a standalone “set-back” Tru2way adapter for TVs.

“We decided that the most scalable way to approach Tru2way was on the set-back box,” he said.

Even with the CE industry’s lack of support, Tru2way is far from dead.

MSOs including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications are relying on the spec, also referred to as the OpenCable Application Platform (or OCAP), to give themselves more flexibility in choosing hardware suppliers and to shorten ITV development cycles.

Comcast, for example, now supports Tru2way in almost 90% of its headends and is in early trial deployments with leased Tru2waybased set-tops from Panasonic and Samsung, spokeswoman Jenni Moyer said. The MSO also has enlisted NDS to help develop a “hardened” version of the Cable- Labs OCAP reference implementation code for its internal use (“Comcast Wants Box Options,” June 21, 2010, p. 45).

Even in retail, Tru2way still may have a future.

CableLabs CEO Paul Liao — previously the chief technology officer of Panasonic — said several retail-oriented devices are currently in development that are Tru2way-compatible. “As those come to market, the situation could change,” he said.

But Tru2way has undeniably been a tough sell to the CE industry. One of the issues: integrating Tru2way support adds cost to a TV — $300 per unit, according to Panasonic’s Cove. Without multiple manufacturers jumping on board, economies of scale that would have reduced those costs have failed to appear.

“It’s very, very difficult for a single company to make a market,” Liao said.

COVERAGE GAPS
Another issue: Tru2way covers only cable, and today that’s just about 63% of the pay-TV universe, according to research firm Magna Global. To reach the broadest possible market, consumer-electronics makers want a way to plug into satellite, as well as telco TV services.

The FCC this spring initiated a proceeding examining how to create an “AllVid” standard that would require all multichannel video programming distributors to use standardized interfaces for their video services, as well as incorporate video from Internet sources.

Depending on how the commission defines the rules, Tru2way could still emerge as a component of an AllVid device to tap into interactive cable services, according to Liao.

“The AllVid device should provide options,” Liao said. But “it can’t be all things to all people because that will drive up the cost.”

Why Tru2way has been a nonstarter for CE, according to industry executives:

Higher cost: Initially adds significant cost per unit.
Cable-centric: Spec covers only cable; FCC's AllVid proposal would cover all pay TV distributors.
Negligible benefit: Most consumers not interested in alternatives to leased set-tops.
SOURCE: Multichannel News research