Adelphia Tests Moxi Service
Media Center to hit L.A. after trial; Charter closing in on deployments
By Ken Kerschbaumer -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/12/2004
Adelphia Communications will test Digeo's Moxi Media Center service during the first half of this year before rolling out 25,000 of the units in the market by year-end.
"This year is going to be a big year for us when we move the product out of the labs and into the living room," says Digeo Director Of Corporate Communications Gina Bender.
The Moxi unit burst onto the scene two years ago when Digeo unveiled ambitious plans to offer a unit providing capabilities from HD recording to storage of MP3 files. The high cost of the fully enabled units has most cable operators, notably Charter and Adelphia, initially picking out the features that are most important to subscribers.
Charter is expected to begin deploying 100,000 of the BMC9012 units with 80GB hard drives later this spring, featuring dual-tuner DVR functionality, HD play and record capability, and integrated VOD and PPV menus. The last two features will give a unified look to services that today typically have different menus. Adelphia will test similar capabilities in its Los Angeles trial and then deploy units later this year.
Digeo expects both operators to be offering the deeper services, such as the ability to store photo and MP3 files, later this year. "There may be certain features that the operator will add as a value-added against satellite," Bender says, "and there may be other cases where they bundle a couple of services and call it an entertainment package." n
