Time Warner Cable pushes back rollout of OpenTV middleware to 2008

August 8, 2007 – Time Warner Cable has delayed the commercial rollout of OpenTV middleware in its Motorola set-top box markets to 2008, due in part to other priorities.

OpenTV CEO Alan Guggenheim confirmed the delay during the company’s second-quarter conference call, stating that the change in deployment timeline was due partly to other projects that have a higher priority for Time Warner Cable, including deployment of switched video.

“While this gives us an opportunity to deliver additional products to Time Warner, it means that the commercial launch timing will need to be pushed back to 2008,” Guggenheim stated.  The executive also said that the delay will give OpenTV more deployment opportunities in international markets that use the Motorola set-top box platform.

Time Warner Cable was expected to use OpenTV’s Core 2.0 middleware to ensure legacy Motorola set-top boxes could run the operators in-house guide and navigation system.  Time Warner Cable is believed to be using OpenTV’s solution to help bridge the transition as it migrates to the OpenCable platform.  The operator is estimated to have deployed 3.5mn to 4mn Motorola set-top boxes.