Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC - message board) has pushed the commercial rollout of Open TV middleware in its Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board) set-top markets to 2008 as it continues to focus on other priorities, including switched digital video.

    Mike Hayashi, the MSO's senior vice president of advanced technology and engineering, alluded to such a delay in May during The Cable Show, but OpenTV CEO Alan Guggenheim confirmed the situation last Thursday (Aug. 2) during the vendor's second-quarter conference call. (See OpenTV Loss Widens in Q2.)

    Last July, Open TV said Time Warner Cable would tap the company's Core 2.0 middleware to ensure legacy Motorola digital set-top boxes could run the MSO's in-house guide and navigation system. Although most Time Warner Cable systems are based on the Scientific Atlanta platform, the MSO is looking to OpenTV to help it bridge its smaller legacy Motorola footprint as it migrates to the OpenCable platform. (See Goodbye, OCAP .)

    Originally, Time Warner Cable's biggest Motorola market was Houston, but that system has since been swapped to Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK). Today, Time Warner's primary Motorola pocket is in the Los Angeles area, which includes systems acquired from the divvying up of Adelphia Communications. (See Adelphia Acquisition Completes.)

    Analysts estimate that Time Warner has 3.5 million to 4 million Motorola boxes deployed. As of June 30, the MSO had 13.4 million basic video subs and 7.7 million digital customers.

    Open TV originally forecast that deployments with Time Warner Cable would begin as early as 2006. At the time of the announcement, the multiyear deal, which covers middleware and other applications yet to be disclosed, was billed as OpenTV's first major foothold in the U.S. cable market.

    Guggenheim said the delay will not affect OpenTV's revenue or guidance projections, though the company does acknowledge that about 80 percent of its revenues originate from its middleware business. OpenTV has shipped more than 92 million copes of its middleware.