Comcast Corp. Pres. Brian Roberts predicted his company would end...
Comcast Corp. Pres. Brian Roberts predicted his company would end new year with 2 million digital cable subscribers, roll out video-on-demand (VoD) service commercially by July and integrate personal video recorder (PVR) technology into its digital set-tops by close…
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of year. Speaking at Economic Club of Washington Wed., Roberts said Comcast, which ended 2000 installing 18,000 digital cable boxes per week, will add 650,000 digital customers this year. He said MSO, which ended last year with more than 400,000 high-speed data subscribers, averaged installation of 10,000 cable modems per week in Dec. Showing off Comcast’s new VoD service, Roberts termed it “the next big product coming” and predicted it would be “a huge, popular product.” He also said Comcast, which is testing joint PVR-cable services with TiVo and ReplayTV in 2 N.J. cable systems, aims to put PVR functionality into upgraded version of its digital cable set-tops by close of year. Roberts pledged that Comcast, which recently took over Washington’s trouble-plagued cable system from AT&T, would transform it into technological showcase in 18 months. He said Comcast, which has become Washington-Baltimore area’s dominant MSO with 80% market share and 20% of company’s nationwide customer base, would end up spending more than $250 million to upgrade its area systems.