Cable Show 2010: Cox Updates Program Guide

Unveils "Trio" on new set-top platform

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/10/2010 12:00:00 AM

Cable Show 2010: Complete Coverage
After a multi-year development effort, cable operator Cox Communications is ready to deploy a new program guide designed to provide subscribers with seamless search
of linear, on-demand and time-shifted programming, and the ability to personalize the interface for individual viewers in a household.
The Trio guide, developed in conjunction with U.K-based interactive TV software supplier NDS and design firm Frog Design, will be formally introduced and demonstrated at the NCTA convention in Los Angeles this week. Cox plans to launch the new guide in at least two markets this quarter and make it available in all its markets this year.
NDS says it may also market Trio to other operators, though Cox holds the core licenses to the technology and would share in any future sales.
Trio will be offered by Cox as part of a new Advanced TV Plus package that provides multi-room DVR functionality. The package uses high-end Cisco 8642 and 1642 Tru2way set-tops that connect over MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) networking. Cox also plans to incorporate parts of Trio into its Website and its upcoming wireless phone service, Technology says Steve Necessary, Cox's VP of video product development and support.
"The design elements will be clearly and consistently carried through to other screens as well," he says.
Like other cable operators, Cox found its navigation technology lagging behind in recent years as it rapidly expanded its content offerings with more HDTV channels and VOD titles. Consumer research indicated that customers weren't taking advantage of the new options because they were simply too hard to find with existing guides built on older set-top platforms.
"We certainly realized our guides were, in fact, broken," says Lisa Pickelsimer, Cox's executive director of video product management.
Cox couldn't find what it was looking for in existing guides from traditional vendors like Gemstar-TV Guide (now owned by Rovi). So, in the spring of 2008, it contracted with NDS to create a completely new guide. Last year, it gave NDS the additional task of adapting existing Cox interactive applications, such as integrated telephony services and Mosaic video channels, to cable's Tru2way software platform.
The sum of those efforts has resulted in Trio, which provides channel listings in a three-panel view below a small video window in the center, with a channel list on the left, a program list in the center and a detailed description of a selected program on the right. Traditional grid- and theme-based views are also available.
In a demonstration to New York media last month, the new guide quickly performed universal search, using keyword, title or actor's name, and retrieved reams of related content based on metadata from Tribune Media Services. Trio can be customized to show different views and favorite channels for up to eight individual viewers. The VOD storefront is also streamlined, with the option of surfing movie titles visually by scrolling through poster art.
As NDS VP of Interactive and Broadband Steve Tranter puts it: "We're using this as much more of a visual guide."