"CT's Pipeline" Editor Laura Hamilton will be on maternity leave until mid-December. The acting editor is Alex Zavistovich, who may be reached at .

FEATURE STORY
Gaming Via Cable: Numbers Are Impressive

Online gaming continues to prove its worth as an audience winner for cable systems. A year after implementing the interactive trivia game Buzztime (www.buzztime.com) in its York, PA, system, Susquehanna Communications has reported reduced churn and improved digital set-top sales, and has introduced the game into a second system in its operations.

Ty Lam, president and COO of Carlsbad, CA-based Buzztime, said the company now has three commercial deployments of its trivia game on cable systems regionally. Susquehanna Communications' York system began offering the game as part of its digital basic service in June 2002. In May 2003 the game was picked up by the Time Warner Cable system in Portland, ME. The following month, Susquehanna added the game to its Williamsport, PA, system.

Lam said Buzztime is no longer releasing player numbers or usage data, but that the "deployments now represent some 50,000 digital subscribers to date." He added that the success Buzztime has had in some regional systems is enabling MSOs to evaluate its success nationally.

Dan Templin, VP of marketing of marketing and programming for Susquehanna, continues to view the service a success. Buzztime saw its market launch in June 2002 with 17,000 digital homes in York. The package was included as part of digital basic service.

Down With Churn -- In its March 2003 issue, Communications Technology reported that Susquehanna's usage research indicated churn among Buzztime homes was 38% lower than homes that were not Buzztime registered. With the introduction of the game into Susquehanna's second largest system in Williamsport (41,000 basic homes), Templin is "impressed that it's holding up so well."

Usage statistics from Susquehanna's York operation show that 43% of digital subscribers are registered as users, with one out of five homes regularly playing each month, said Templin. The average player spends 91 minutes per month with the game. He added that the game is useful in retention and increased sales of digital set-tops. In the 12 months since the launch of Buzztime, Templin noted that 38% of homes in the York area now have two or more digital set-tops, as compared to 20% on average for the rest of the MSO. Year to date, churn is 15% lower in Buzztime homes, Templin commented.

How's It Working? From a technical perspective, Templin said Buzztime is performing "extraordinarily well." Early in March, one minor issue was resolved regarding scores (which had been updated after two or three questions, and now are updated in real time). This enables players to compete against one another across Susquehanna operations, and even with the Time Warner Portland operation.

Time Warner spokespeople could not be reached by press time, but the system is actively offering Buzztime as "new and free for digital subscribers." According to Buzztime's Lam, on August 27,Time Warner concluded a promotion that brought 50 of the top Buzztime players (winnowed down from an original field of 1,000 home competitors) to Bleacher's Bar in Portland, where winner received a $500 check and a trophy.

Lam was decidedly upbeat about Buzztime's prospects in the cable industry. He acknowledged that penetrating a franchise-based industry is a challenge, because there is only one provider in each market. Still, from the performance in the Susquehanna systems alone, it seems as though online gaming may have much to offer the cable industry.

ENGINEERING NEWS
Letters to the Editor

Pipeline welcomes letters to the editor. If you'd like to share your thoughts on stories that have run on these pages, or comment on any topic of interest to broadband cable engineers, send an e-mail to . All letters may be published, and edited for style or length.

Is High-Def Viable for Rural Systems? - "The rural environment for HDTV is quite uncertain. Our small headend is 45 to 75 miles from the major networks. Analog NTSC is plagued with terrestrial interference on the lower VHF frequencies largely in the form of impulse noise and co-channel interference from temperature inversions, tropospheric ducting, etc., that affect even UHF stations.

"None of the broadcasters I have spoken to can assure me that we will receive a useable signal when they start broadcasting HD signals with the full rated output, whenever that will be. The reality of digital means you pretty much have the picture (excepting for artifacts) or you don't -- not snow or lines. The only option for those unfortunate small rural systems (and there are many here in the Midwest) is an expensive fiber backhaul or some form of satellite delivery that will probably be compressed to such a level that high definition will be somewhat less than "high.' "

"There is little economy to HD, especially in small systems. Who wants to spend the money until we are fairly certain that the standards have settled down and the quality and reliability is at least as good as what we have now? We aren't sure what to tell the few customers who are thinking of buying HD sets now other than to wait and see." -- James Bieker, Marne & Elk Horn Telephone Co.

Blasting Blaster War Story -- "The Blaster virus caused little problem with most of my customers. The ISP I used had implemented a number of port blocks. My mail servers and my ISP's mail server have active virus scanning on them, and my servers were not affected with Blaster.

"Customers who were not protected were mostly ones who were on dial-ups with the other local ISPs, and I did have a rash of cable customers who were infected. I tried to convince cable customers to purchase a router (usually a Linksys ), which was available at the local Radio Shack. But Radio Shack ran out ... I hope to have more in.

"Personally, my war story should be from the Power Outage of 2003.

I lost a DNS server, even behind a UPS. To get the power company to replace my server -- the next 24 hrs were hell! Franklin S. Werren, www.chautauqualake.net

CAREER ENGINEER
Western Show to End with Star Power Behind It

This year's Western Show, Dec. 2-5 in Anaheim, CA, may be the confab's swansong, but it's going out shooting with some of the industry's biggest guns. A number of the most influential cable chief executives will attend the show, and participate in general sessions.

CEOs confirmed to appear include Advance/Newhouse's Bob Miron, Adelphia's Bill Schleyer, Bresnan Communication's Bill Bresnan, Charter's Carl Vogel, Comcast's Brian Roberts, Cox's Jim Robbins, Insight's Michael Willner and Time Warner's Glenn Britt.

"The Western Show general sessions have provided an excellent forum over the years to candidly discuss issues facing our business," Insight's Willner says. "This year's panels promise to be an excellent setting to finish out this great show's rich tradition."

For more info, visit www.thewesternshow.com.

BROADBAND SOAPBOX
Power Outages: How Did You Deal?

Most MSOs affected by the Great Power Outage of '03 handled the whole mess with aplomb, according to most accounts. So there's got to be a bunch of you out there with some great lessons-learned from your "powerless" experience.

To share your war stories with other Pipeline readers, send an e-mail to to comment. All letters may be published, and edited for style or length.

SCTE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Focus on New Services at SCTE Seminar Central

SCTE will hold its second annual Seminar Central Oct. 21-24 on the Cisco Campus in San Jose, CA. This year's collection of learning opportunities focuses on new services and technologies such as VOD, home networking, and DOCSIS 2.0. Plus, save $75 when you register to attend more than one seminar. Select your seminars at http://www.scte.org/events/index.cfm?pID=601.

Calling All Papers for CLC 2004 -- SCTE is accepting proposals for educational papers to be presented at the Society's annual Chapter Leadership Conference (CLC), set for April 1-2, 2004, at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans in New Orleans. The deadline for proposal submissions is Sept. 19. Offer your ideas for papers at http://www.scte.org/events/index.cfm?pID=193.

New DOCSI^S Book Available From SCTE Bookstore -- Innovations and advanced versions of DOCSIS have hit the market more quickly than engineers have been able to create the roadmaps to implement them. Now, in this new first-of-its-kind book, Optimizing the Future with Next-Generation DOCSIS: Mechanics, Options and Issues on the Road to 2.0, by Fred Dawson, you have a comprehensive guide to building these complex platforms. Order your copy ($55 for SCTE members) at http://www.scte.org/acb/stores/2/product1.asp?SID=2&Product_ID=264, or .

Apply Your BCT Credentials to a New SCTE Specialist Certification -- SCTE's Specialist Certifications reflect your knowledge of the industry's latest technologies. Now, for a limited time, you have the opportunity to apply one or more exams that you've passed in the BCT Certification Program to an SCTE Specialist Certification. Just submit your completed SCTE Certification Migration Form before Dec. 31 online or call our SCTE Customer Care Center at . Become SCTE Specialist certified at https://www.scte.org/training/migration.cfm.

SCTE Promotes Sload to Manager, National Conferences -- SCTE recently promoted Eileen Sload to manager, national conferences. She was previously convention coordinator, national conferences. Get the details at http://www.scte.org/news/detail.cfm?ID=211.

If you find CT's Pipeline to be a valuable resource, e-mail this issue to your colleagues and tell them it's just one of the many exclusive benefits of SCTE membership--only a click away at http://www.scte.org/membership/index.cfm?pID=27.

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