Cable Firms See Gains in Set-Top Wars

CABLE FIRMS SEE GAINS IN SET-TOP WARS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sara Silver sara.silver@wsj.com]
The cable-TV industry may finally be seeing at least a little progress in its years-long effort to break the stranglehold that two companies have on the $3 billion U.S. market for cable set-top boxes, the device that holds the key to most advanced cable services. Last week, Comcast Corp., the No. 1 cable operator by subscribers, which has long sought to reduce its reliance on Motorola Inc., the biggest supplier of set-top boxes in the U.S., paired with electronics manufacturer Panasonic. They unveiled a plasma TV with a built-in box and a portable digital video recorder. At the same time, Time Warner Cable Inc., which buys most of its set-top boxes from Cisco Systems Inc.'s Scientific-Atlanta, is rolling out hundreds of thousands of boxes made by Samsung Electronics Co. Cable operators hope that diversifying will lower their costs and give them the ability to offer a wider array of services, a critical issue right now, given mounting competition from phone companies.
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