Evansville, Ind. -- Fending off a tough local overbuilder,
Insight Communications Co. Inc. said last Wednesday that it has launched Diva Systems
Corp.'s video-on-demand service here.
The launch, using Motorola Broadband Communications Sector
"DCT-2000" digital set-top terminals, is Insight's third Diva deployment,
after Rockford, Ill., and Columbus, Ohio.
As in those other systems, Insight will use Source Media
Inc.'s "LocalSource" interactive guide to sort through the hundreds of
movies, children's videos and specialty programming Diva's "OnSet On Demand
TV" offers.
For Redwood City, Calif.-based Diva, this is the seventh
commercial deployment.
In Evansville, Insight competes against a venture called
SIGECOM -- a partnership of the local gas and electric utility and Utilicom Networks Inc.
that offers a bundle of cable and phone services.
Insight CEO Michael Willner made note of that situation in
a news release announcing the launch. "In this competitive market, we are confident
that the advanced nature of our products will provide the people of Evansville with the
entertainment and information options they are seeking," he said.
Insight has about 46,000 subscribers here. The MSO launched
"Insight Digital Gateway" in the city as part of an extensive, $11 million
rebuild of the area's cable system to a two-way, 750-megahertz platform anchored by
more than 180 channels, including 45 digital-music channels.
The companies touted the headend-based Source guide as
helping to free up memory within the digital box to enable both the Diva service and
LocalSource programming.
Insight is a key backer of Source, having pumped $25
million into the interactive-applications developer last year. Insight and Source each own
50 percent of SourceSuite LLC, a joint venture that owns LocalSource.
New York-based Insight is the eighth-largest MSO, with
about 1 million subscribers. It acquired the Evansville system in October 1998 from
Tele-Communications Inc.
Non-Insight Diva deployments are in Edmonds, Wash.
(Chambers Communications Corp.); Delaware County, Pa. (Suburban Cable); and another,
as-yet-undisclosed location.
