CableCARD Deployments Creep Past 53M

Latest and Greatest in the world of Technology and/or Media Center.
Post Reply
kd6icz

Posts: 512
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 5:38 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

CableCARD Deployments Creep Past 53M

#1

Post by kd6icz » Thu Aug 06, 2015 3:14 am


Ed 

Posts: 808
Joined: Sat May 24, 2014 3:14 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#2

Post by Ed  » Thu Aug 06, 2015 3:32 am

Not even 1 million for non Cable STB users. And a majority of that is the more popular Tivo.
article wrote:and a mere 617,000 of the removable security modules in TiVo boxes, TVs and other retail products with CableCARD slots, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s latest report to the FCC.

kd6icz

Posts: 512
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 5:38 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#3

Post by kd6icz » Thu Aug 06, 2015 5:55 am

True... But the number is a little misleading. I would like to see the average number of tuners for leased equipment vs. customer owned. I bet leased is 1.5 tuners per card vs. Owned is 3 or 4 tuners per card.

User avatar
STC

Posts: 6808
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:58 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#4

Post by STC » Thu Aug 06, 2015 10:57 am

If anything it shows MSOs aren't cutting back on using them.
By the Community, for the Community. 100% Commercial Free.

Want decent guide data back? Check out EPG123

glugglug

Posts: 391
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:34 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#5

Post by glugglug » Thu Aug 06, 2015 11:17 am

The number should in fact be exploding.

The STBs that don't use the CableCARDs are over a decade old, because boxes made before 2006 were grandfathered out of the requirement to use physical CableCARDs. STBs made before 2006 tend to also not support H.264 though, and to squeeze into less bandwidth, more cable companies are adding H.264 channels, and therefore need to replace those 13+ year old boxes.

Unfortunately the integration ban was lifted last year, and we may start seeing new STBs that integrate them instead of using the physical cards again, which the cable companies will flock to for their replacements.

User avatar
STC

Posts: 6808
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:58 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#6

Post by STC » Thu Aug 06, 2015 1:53 pm

Here in Canada most STBs supplied nowadays are integrated.
By the Community, for the Community. 100% Commercial Free.

Want decent guide data back? Check out EPG123

kd6icz

Posts: 512
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 5:38 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#7

Post by kd6icz » Thu Aug 06, 2015 4:49 pm

I was forced to pick up a stand alone STB due to the promotion I'm on. (Luckily the phone rep screwed up so they gave it free for a year)

It's a brand spanking new Arris non-DVR single tuner HD box. Yep! It still has an M-Card! However the little "digital adapter" they're issuing to customers for the digital conversion must be integrated because they are barely bigger than a CableCARD.

mike_ekim

Posts: 174
Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2014 4:12 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#8

Post by mike_ekim » Thu Aug 06, 2015 8:29 pm

STC wrote:If anything it shows MSOs aren't cutting back on using them.
I suspect there are contractual agreements with manufacturers to buy cablecard boxes, and also a lack of sufficient supply of the non-cablecard boxes.

blueiedgod

Posts: 726
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:02 pm
Location: Amherst, NY

HTPC Specs: Show details

#9

Post by blueiedgod » Mon Aug 17, 2015 4:10 pm

and a mere 617,000 of the removable security modules in TiVo boxes, TVs and other retail products with CableCARD slots, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s - See more at: http://www.multichannel.com/news/techno ... RNlSX.dpuf
The numbers are WAAAAY off, or someone else is lying somewhere else...

TiVO claims to have 2,000,000 subscribers. I would guess that 90% of those are with cableTV services. That would mean that there are at least 2,000,000 CableCARDs out there...

Only Ceton and SiliconDust know how many of their tuners are in service, but a few years ago, Microsoft released their statistics for WMC, and it was 8,000,000 in use globally. They didn't break it down by region or type of service.

mike_ekim

Posts: 174
Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2014 4:12 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#10

Post by mike_ekim » Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:03 pm

blueiedgod wrote:
and a mere 617,000 of the removable security modules in TiVo boxes, TVs and other retail products with CableCARD slots, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s - See more at: http://www.multichannel.com/news/techno ... RNlSX.dpuf
The numbers are WAAAAY off, or someone else is lying somewhere else...
Not quite a lie and the numbers are probably pretty close. I followed the source link in the article you linked to. Here is text from that document:
CableCARD Deployment and Support. The five cable operators who are required to
report today – Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, Comcast Corporation, Cox
Communications, and Time Warner Cable – have deployed approximately 586,000
CableCARDs for use in retail CableCARD-enabled devices. When the CableCARDs deployed
by the next four largest incumbent cable operators are included, there have been over 617,000
CableCARDs deployed for use in retail devices by the nine largest incumbent cable operators.

By contrast, those nine companies have more than 53,000,000 operator-supplied set-top boxes
with CableCARDs currently deployed.
I think the numbers are pretty close but the journalism was a bit sloppy. The author should have cut and pasted the text; some information got lost when he tried to put it in his own words.
blueiedgod wrote: TiVO claims to have 2,000,000 subscribers. I would guess that 90% of those are with cableTV services. That would mean that there are at least 2,000,000 CableCARDs out there...

Only Ceton and SiliconDust know how many of their tuners are in service, but a few years ago, Microsoft released their statistics for WMC, and it was 8,000,000 in use globally. They didn't break it down by region or type of service.
CableCard is a United States-only technology. TiVo and MCE are used in many countries. The number of worldwide MCE and TiVo users can't be used to indicate the number of CableCards.

LuckyDay

Posts: 586
Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:42 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#11

Post by LuckyDay » Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:33 pm

blueiedgod wrote:TiVO claims to have 2,000,000 subscribers. I would guess that 90% of those are with cableTV services. That would mean that there are at least 2,000,000 CableCARDs out there...
In addition to the fact that this is worldwide as mentioned above, the TIVO numbers probably also include anyone who has ever had a TIVO lifetime subscription. There are likely to be quite a few of these that are inactive or no longer using the product.

The 600,000 number sounds much more accurate.
Only Ceton and SiliconDust know how many of their tuners are in service, but a few years ago, Microsoft released their statistics for WMC, and it was 8,000,000 in use globally. They didn't break it down by region or type of service.
That number is so misleading it's insane. That has to be including every single user who has clicked on the WMC logo or opened the program one time, which is going to be potentially millions when you consider WMC is the default player for many video types in the past two versions of windows.

Even if we're going to ignore how insane that claim is, that is 1% of the WMC user base worldwide and highlights how crazy it is that people around here think things like 2000 people signing a petition are going to have a chance to save this program.

User avatar
STC

Posts: 6808
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:58 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#12

Post by STC » Tue Aug 18, 2015 7:23 pm

^ Yeah this is the reality of it pretty much.
By the Community, for the Community. 100% Commercial Free.

Want decent guide data back? Check out EPG123

glugglug

Posts: 391
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:34 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#13

Post by glugglug » Wed Aug 19, 2015 1:56 am

Only Ceton and SiliconDust know how many of their tuners are in service, but a few years ago, Microsoft released their statistics for WMC, and it was 8,000,000 in use globally. They didn't break it down by region or type of service.
That number is so misleading it's insane. That has to be including every single user who has clicked on the WMC logo or opened the program one time, which is going to be potentially millions when you consider WMC is the default player for many video types in the past two versions of windows.
The 8,000,000 number was based on the percentage of users they said launched WMC at least once in one month, July 2011 I think. But yeah, it did say most of those were just looking around and closed it within 10 minutes.

Also, it has never been the default player except for .wtv and .dvr-ms files which are unusual for non-WMC users. If you click on any .avis, .mp4s, or .mkvs it will most likely open Windows Media Player, not Windows Media Center.

Post Reply