A Switch in Time: The Role of Switched Digital Video in Easing the Looming Bandwidth Crisis in Cable

Switched digital video technology, once considered little more than a wild-eyed science experiment by North American cable operators, has become mainstream. Indeed, we enter the summer of 2008 projecting that cable multiple- system operators - faced with ever-tightening bandwidth constraints as they seek to add more HDTV programming, niche programming, and other digital offerings - will cover more than half of the United States and Canada with switched digital installations by the end of the year and 75 percent or more of their cable footprint by the close of 2009. This article provides an industry analyst's perspective on the surge of interest in SDV and the implications of that surge for the future of the cable industry.