TiVo and Cox Communications have renewed their licensing deal regarding Contour TV. The operating system is based on Comcast's X1 technology, and a recent Comcast-TiVo agreement made the Cox renewal possible.

Sparklight Business has rolled out optical wavelength connectivity for medium- and large-sized companies in the 21 states where it has markets. The service is based on fiber and supports speeds between 10 and 100 gigabits per second.

Everstream is adding 1,047 route miles of backhaul fiber across Louisville and Lexington, Ky.; South Bend and Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Cincinnati, Toledo and Dayton, Ohio. The company plans to add as many as 3,000 route miles in the Midwest this year to provide 5G fronthaul and backhaul for carriers.

Remote controls with dedicated buttons for specific streaming services are becoming ubiquitous, and many newer devices include six or seven shortcuts. Conflicts are arising between smart television platforms, which emphasize aggregation and sorting, and streaming providers such as Netflix, which want their content to remain app-exclusive.

NBCUniversal is talking Olympic sponsorship with advertisers again, and rolling out a new tool for the Tokyo games in 2021. The "Olympics Ad Engine" combines artificial intelligence with human curation to design the most effective advertisements by examining almost 700 previous Olympic spots.

Security services and telecoms are vigilant about protecting consumer internet of things devices from cyber criminals but neglect performance improvements, writes Veego Software CEO Amir Kotler. Providers should pay more attention to collecting device traffic data through routers, which could provide insights without raising privacy concerns, Kotler adds.

A new Nielsen feature will measure the reception of theatrical films that get in-home streaming releases. Disney+ led the ratings for such films in 2020 with "Frozen II," and "The Office" took the overall streaming prize.

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If you've got ideas about how energy management and sustainability will drive big changes in cable in the years ahead, now's the time to submit to the next issue of the SCTE•ISBE Journal of Energy Management. From Access Network Powering and Critical Facilities Cooling to Alternate Energy and Next-Generation Architectures to support 10G, the Journal of Energy Management is a recognized source for cable energy thought leadership. Email Derek DiGiacomo to learn how to get involved.