Hulu recently announced that they will be introducing a premium service that is a departure from the free model that has made it so popular.  For $10 per month, subscribers to this new service will gain features like access to a larger content library and the availability of 720p video; however, premium subscribers hoping to bypass the embedded advertisements will be disappointed, as they will get the same number of ads as in the free service.  Response to the announcement has been mixed, with many people disappointed in particular that the advertisements will persist.

It should be noted that most people have been expecting this announcement ever since Hulu launched.  Despite its popularity, Hulu continues to lose money, and it faces stiff competition from the likes of Netflix and iTunes.  To help muscle into living rooms around the United States, Hulu and Microsoft will join forces to bring Hulu to the Xbox Video Marketplace dashboard, and Hulu will also be available on Sony’s PS3, Apple’s iPad and iPhone, and a slew of other devices like Bluray players and TVs.

Whether or not they’re interested in Hulu’s pay service, subscribers are likely to gain from increased entertainment options.  With a wide variety of hardware (set top devices, game consoles, placeshifting devices) and services (Hulu, iPlayer, etc) and ongoing investments by service providers in advanced network policy control to deliver optimum quality of experience, the marketplace will decide the winners; ultimately, the choice is up to the subscribers.

Last week we exhibited at The Cable Show in Los Angeles, CA. This event provides a forum for all the Cable MSOs to gather to discuss content/programming, TV networks and much of the infrastructure to deliver next generation video.

Alongside the very Hollywood-esque show is CableNet. This always well-attended “product demo-focused” pavilion of the show, organized by CableLabs, provides insight into timely key themes such as interactive TV, video on demand, and broadband over cable. It gives operators the chance to see a broad range of product demonstrations within a very focused area.

Sandvine took the opportunity to demonstrate its latest product in our Network Business Intelligence Portfolio.  Network Data Analytics is focused on providing an executive level dashboard view of how subscribers are using their broadband service. It aims to answer questions like “How do my DOCSIS 3 subscribers use their service compared to the DOCSIS 2 subscribers?” or “Where will I get the best return on my CAPEX budget?”. It was great to see the many cable operators who  dropped by to explore. They were quite intrigued by the flexibility of the product and how it could potentially help them to enhance their businesses and their customers quality of experience. After all, providing better broadband is the end goal.

In addition to a wide range of operators, we were pleased to host FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski, when he dropped by to see some of the trends that Sandvine is currently reporting on.

Were you at the show? Please share your better broadband observations and experiences.

Thursday’s panel at CTIA captured the key common theme of this year’s show – how to continue the innovation of the U.S. mobile telecommunications industry with the help, not the hindrance, of regulators.  The panel represented a novel mix of entertainment, with 3D advocate James Cameron, social networking, epitomized by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and the “U.S. government CTO” Aneesh Chopra.  Mr. Chopra sidestepped the audience-popular remarks posed by the CNBC moderator which questioned the effectiveness of regulations on connectivity growth.  He preferred to leave the hard answers to the FCC, stating that his role is to leverage the existing infrastructure for utmost benefit. Read the rest of this entry »