Mediacom Communications has become the latest cable operator to remove old-world QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) signals used for linear video off its network, freeing up more wherewithal for high-speed internet.
With a substantial portion of Mediacom’s customers using either TiVo's IPTV solution or the Xumo Stream Box for video, removing the video signals used to support traditional cable set-tops “turned out not to be that big a deal,” Mediacom chief technology officer JR Walden said while speaking at a Denver-area industry event Monday, which was covered by Light Reading.
It's well known that cable operators have, in many cases, ceded their video operations to streaming-based solutions, including third-party virtual MVPDs like YouTube TV, for economic reasons: spiraling programming costs and cord-cutting have conspired to gut the margins on linear video services.
But there's also a significant savings in network resources by not supporting QAM video infrastructure.
“In addition to the benefits to our customers we will be able to accelerate the reclamation of bandwidth previously used for our legacy video service,“ WOW! CEO Teresa Elder said in November. “This allows WOW! to efficiently transition our network for DOCSIS 4.0 and serve the growing demand for customer usage without having to overbuild their own network.”
“We definitely are encouraging customers who take our traditional video to either subscribe to YouTube TV or a streaming service,” Elder added. “We have not forced customers off of video to date, and we are really trying to manage churn on that to continue to support that. With that said, we know that over the next year, 1.5 years, we want to completely get [video] off of our QAM network.”
According to Light Reading, Cox Communications and Midco are making post-QAM plans as well.
