Cable, consumer electronics converge, says Comcast CEO

In what was the first keynote from a cable company executive in the Consumer Electronic Show’s history, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told the audience that the cableco is now the fourth largest residential phone service provider in the United States, surpassing Embarq in subscribers.

With the help of celebrity personality Ryan Seacrest and an amusing closer from the Flight of the Conchords duo, Roberts described to CES attendees how the industry is at a major inflection point. Five years back when he took the trip to CES with Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, the cable industry was virtually invisible at the show. Since then Comcast and the industry as a whole has completely rewired its DNA, Roberts said, epitomized by the launch of Comcast 3.0, as well as its success in the phone arena.

The move to No. 3 in telephony services was made less than three years after the company launched Comcast Digital Voice, a phone home service similar to mobile phones with new features that include visual voicemail reminiscent of the iPhone – users can view all the numbers or contacts who left messages and listen in any order, email notifications and a menu of options ranging from weather to instant messaging to a Yellow Pages search function.

“Customers typically switch out their cordless phones every 18 months or so,” said Cathy Avgiris, senior vice president and general manager of Comcast’s voice services group. The user interface of the cordless phones gives Comcast a reason to attach their name to the service, she added. In his keynote, Roberts also noted that Comcast is giving telcos a run for their money outside of just phone services.

“Our ability to beat the phone companies into broadband was accelerated by having open standard cable modems,” he said. “We got into the market inexpensively, quickly and with innovation.”

Roberts was referring to what Comcast is calling tru2way, a platform that supports all interactive two-way cable services without the use of a cable set-top box. The platform, Java-based and with open-APIs, is aimed at turning the cable market into a single market all around the world.

“The entire cable industry will support true two-way technology on cable systems by the end of this year,” he said. As of now, Samsung, Panasonic, LG and Motorola will deliver all of Comcast’s tru2way services. Panasonic president Toshihiro Sakamoto joined Roberts to tell attendees that two new models of tru2way interactive TVs will be available later this year.

“That means customers no longer need a set-top box,” Roberts said. ”It is built right into the TV, with only one remote controlling it all. There will be no more extra layers.”

Roberts also debuted AnyPlay, what he claimed is the first portable DVR DVD combination available to consumers with tru2way capability. It can play content anywhere at anytime. Roberts said that it shows what the cable industry and consumer electronics industry can accomplish when they work together.

The tru2way platform will be powered by the DOCSIS standard, an open standard for third party innovators. Roberts told attendees that the age of closed, propriety cable STBs is behind the industry, and the era of open, two-way platform is here.

“We’ll have DOCSIS 3.0 rolled out for millions of serviceable homes by the end of this year,” he said. “If it is as popular as we expect, we’ll continue rolling out this product. No competitor will have this much speed to as many phones.”