Bright House Networks continues to up the advanced services ante in Indianapolis.
Beginning next week, the cable operator will roll out the Start Over enhanced TV feature and increase the speed of the Road Runner Turbo High Speed Internet service by a third, according to MSO officials. The introductions of those products follow a major investment in high-definition channels made by the operator in central Indiana last fall.
"Building the excitement toward the opening games of the Olympics, we're able to add to the enjoyment of and access to entertainment and information with these exclusive new products and features," said Wayde Klein, vice president of marketing and customer operations for Bright House Networks Indiana, in announcing the additions. "With our speed boost to Road Runner Turbo, customers will be able to take advantage of some of the highest Internet speeds available, making video viewing over the Internet an even better, real-time experience."
Available to all Bright House Networks digital TV customers with converters without charge and the need for extra equipment, Start Over enables customers tuning in five minutes late or five minutes before a program ends to go back to the beginning of a program. Once the show has started over, Bright House subs can rewind, pause and resume at any time during the broadcast.
Time Warner Cable, a major proponent of Start Over functionality, represents Bright House in many programming deals.
The following channels will have Start Over capabilities beginning Feb. 12: USA HD, CNBC HD, MSNBC HD, Universal HD, Discovery HD, Travel HD, Animal Planet HD, HBO East HD, HBO West HD and Showtime East HD. Bright House Networks will provide Start Over capabilities to additional channels at a subsequent date.
Start Over is also available to Bright House customers in its service areas in Tampa and Central, Fla., Birmingham, Ala. and Bakersfield, Calif. The operator plans to outfit its other market, Detroit, with the enhanced feature, but the timetable for deployment there has yet to be set.
As for Road Runner Turbo, the downstream speed will soar 33% to a speed of up to 20 Mbps with an upstream speed of up to 2 Mbps. The Road Runner Turbo speed increase will also mean a one-third boost in the maximum speed of the Road Runner Turbo PowerBoostTM service, to a maximum of 30 Mbps.
The monthly charge for Road Runner Turbo service effective with the speed increase is $15 more than standard Road Runner Service with speeds of up to 7 Mbps. The higher speed service is available to both new and extant customers.
Bright House customers in Tampa and Central Florida are already up to speed with the availability of this improved level of service.
