Top Tech Articles You Might Have Missed - Week of October 28, 2013

Post-SCTE news continued to drive tech media coverage on content delivery & distribution, CCAP and cloud services. CableFAX’s Michael Grebb highlighted the industry’s next step forward with the upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 and the growing focus on developing more intuitive software to improve set-top box navigation.

Multichannel News shared more insight from our own CEO Bob Stanzione, who predicted a new class of cloud-connected boxes and gateways will help “spur growth in the industry,” while NASDAQ highlighted our third-quarter earnings, showing strong growth in both revenue and net income.

Our Fourth Annual Media Engagement Barometer showed the second screen experience is becoming even more important, which was reinforced by a new study seen in Mashable that children today are using tablets or smartphones to watch videos before they can even speak in full sentences. The study found that by age eight, 72% of children have used a smartphone, tablet or similar device, which will certainly continue as they mature and seek out even more content. Separately, Rapid TV News shared a survey conducted by IHS, which projected that encoder and decoder channel shipments will grow by 25% between 2013 and 2017, demonstrating another effect of online video consumption.

Tell us what’s happening in your home. How are you (or your kids) using second screens while watching TV? We want to know!

• 5 Takeaways from SCTE (Oct. 25) By Michael Grebb, CableFAX: The SCTE Cable-Tec Expo just wrapped in Atlanta. And while most of the show involves language that most of us couldn’t even begin to comprehend, we were able to decipher a few key takeaways that may help you understand why nearly 10,000 techies, operators and vendors chose to make the trip, a 6% increase over last year.

• Arris CEO Stanzione Sees Video Poised for a Comeback in Cable (Oct. 28) By Jeff Baumgartner, Multichannel News: A mix of fierce competition and a haggard housing market has conspired to keep cable video in the doldrums, but the industry’s shift to IP video and cloud-based services will help cable operators reestablish video subscriber growth, at least according to Arris Group chairman and CEO Bob Stanzione.

• Arris Beats on Q3 Earnings (Oct. 31), NASDAQ: Yesterday, after the closing bell, Arris Enterprises Inc. declared strong financial results for the third quarter of 2013, significantly beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate. As a result, in the aftermarket trade on Nasdaq, the stock price of Arris was up by 51 cents (3.09%) to $17.

• 38% of Children Under 2 Use Mobile Media, Study Says (Oct. 28) By Meg Wagner, Mashable: Nearly two in five children have used a tablet or smartphone before they could speak in full sentences, according to a new report. Conducted by family advocacy organization Common Sense Media, the study found that 38% of children under the age of 2 have used a mobile device for playing games, watching videos or other media-related purposes. In 2011, only 10% had.

• IHS: 25% growth for professional encoders, transcoders to 2017 (Oct. 29) By Staff, Rapid TV News: The market for professional encoders and transcoders is seeing a huge benefit from current soaring online video consumption, assisted greatly by content bingeing, says new research from IHS Electronics & Media.