Thomson to Provide DTAs to Comcast

Low-cost converters will speed move to all-digital operation.

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/8/2008 10:12:00 AM

French video-technology conglomerate Thomson announced that it signed a deal to provide Comcast, the largest cable operator in the United States, with low-cost digital-to-analog adapters that will help it to convert more of its analog-programming channels to digital operation and, thus, conserve bandwidth for advanced services like HDTV and video-on-demand.

Like other major operators, Comcast currently transmits the 70-80 channels that make up the basic-cable tier in analog form on most of its systems. Comcast chief operating officer Steve Burke told the crowd at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ Cable-Tec Expo 2008 show in Philadelphia last month that the company would like to reclaim some of that bandwidth by converting those channels to all-digital operation and using the freed-up capacity for more HD programming and faster broadband service.

Comcast had previously told investors that it would use low-cost digital-to-analog converters, or DTAs, to convert a large chunk of the analog-basic tier to all-digital operation. The one-way devices are designed to work with analog-TV sets and will perform a similar function as over-the-air DTV-converter boxes but have cable tuners. They would likely cost in the $35 range, perhaps more if they include conditional-access or copy-protection functionality.

Thomson did not release financial details of the purchase agreement for DTAs with Comcast. But the deal is significant for the company, the leading worldwide supplier of digital set-tops for cable, Internet-protocol-TV and satellite operations, which hasn’t had a share of the U.S. cable market to date.

“Thomson is pleased to enter the U.S. cable-video market and expand our relationship with Comcast by becoming a supplier of DTA adapters,” said Frederic Kurkjian, vice president of video-premises systems for Thomson’s systems division, in a statement. “The experience on this project will be invaluable for us as the world prepares to follow suit and migrate from analog to digital.”

Thomson didn’t say that its deal with Comcast was exclusive, and Comcast is likely to use multiple suppliers for DTAs. For example, U.K.-based set-top maker Pace Micro Technology said in May that it won a major contract for DTV devices from a U.S. operator. At the SCTE show, Pace was showing a preproduction model of a DTA device that was about the size of an automobile radar detector and didn’t include any copy-protection or conditional-access functions.

Chris Dinallo, VP of technology for Pace, wouldn’t say who was buying the Pace DTA but said the unit would be ready to ship in October. He added that there was strong interest in the device at the show.

“There’s a tremendous amount of bandwidth being used up by the analog tier,” Dinallo said.