Spectrum Guide by Charter

SPECTRUM GUIDE BY CHARTER

Charter Communications believes in its Spectrum Guide. The cable system operator is expanding the reach of the cloud-based TV user interface. On Thursday, April 28, Charter announced that it now offers the interface to customers in Reno, Fort Worth, and St. Louis. Tom Rutledge, Charter’s CEO, said his company expects to offer the UI in most of its existing markets by the end of the year. “It continues to scale well, and is resonating with consumers”, he said. With ‘ActiveVideo’ technology, the Spectrum Guide works with older cable boxes as well as new internet-capable boxes.

Before long, Charter will unveil its World Box, which will support the Spectrum Guide and a wide variety of apps. It will also feature a downloadable suite of security tools.

Technicolor and Humax will manufacture the World Box.

Extending availability of the on-screen guide is essential to Charter’s goal of offering internet-capable TV service for all 36 million homes in its markets. Rutledge said, “The ActiveVideo technology allows us to use existing set top boxes, and put a state-of-the-art interface on (them), and not have to replace those boxes… So they become state-of-the-art boxes.”

Charter recently bought Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Rutledge said that accelerating transition of the acquired systems to all-digital formats is a “key priority”. He expects to complete the process by 2018.

On a conference call with investors, Rutledge also addressed customer service. He said that his company has seen steep reductions in billing and service calls since last year. This, he said, is a sign that customer service is improving.

Earlier this month, Charter began offering electronic connection and disconnection capability. This reduces the need to send trucks to customer homes, and helps to enable self-installation.

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