LOS ANGELES – Since it went digital, the cable industry has been on a long, arduous search for a pair of improvements: a better remote control and an easier to use interactive program guide.
The on-screen grid guide and multi-buttoned remotes have gone about as far as they can in their ability to navigate the multichannel world. It’s a world not only with hundreds of linear TV channels but also thousands of video on demand titles (and in the case of Comcast, tens of thousands of titles).
Navigating through what’s on with a remote and the standard grid is not a customer-pleasing experience, especially since customers are growing used to the ease of finding all sorts of video and other things on the web using far more intuitive and user-friendly means.
So, what Comcast CEO Brian Roberts unveiled Wednesday morning at the NCTA’s Cable Show (click here for the video, shot just the day before) here in L.A. left just about everyone with a case of severe gadget envy. Using an Apple iPad, Roberts easily surfed through what’s on the Comcast dial on the device and with a tap of the pad, called it up on his television.
With a few more taps he used Facebook to connect with a friend and invite him to watch – who tuned to the same channel with a tap of his own iPad.
It’ll work with any generation of digital set top box – so there’s no cost to the operator (we assume Comcast won’t be handing out iPads to people). “It liberates us from the cable box and puts the power in the hands of the consumer,” Roberts told Cable Show delegates Tuesday morning.
While Comcast said consumers will get the Xfinity later this year, turns out that it won’t be limited to just that company’s customers. Time Warner Cable’s Glenn Britt said in this video shot from the show floor that this is a CableLabs-Apple co-production – which leaves us hopeful that it will be available in Canada too as a number of Canadian MSOs (Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, Videotron, EastLink, Access, Westman, etc.) are CableLabs members, too.
We had a quick chat with Rogers Communications EVP Phil Lind after the morning session and he admitted the Xfinity demo blows away any navigation Rogers – or any other cableco – has had.
– Greg O’Brien
