LAS VEGAS — Now that cable companies have pulled off what they call their "triple play" of offering bundled telephone, television and Internet service, they're looking for their next big hit.
If they don't strike out, it could bring consumers new options for cell-phone service, e-mail and voice mail, and video.
At the cable industry's annual conference here this week, companies such as Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Cox Communications Inc. previewed their newest services, technologies and partnerships aimed at countering the growing competition from telephone, satellite and Internet companies.
But while the cable com- panies' new game plans look promising, some industry observers say, the industry's next transition also comes with new challenges.
"The growth opportunities in cable are probably clearer now than they've been in a long time," said Aryeh Bourkoff, vice chairman and analyst at UBS Investment Research. "But one big issue is competition."
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Going head-to-head against the likes of AT&T and Verizon in the cell-phone business could be a tough prospect for cable companies, Bourkoff said. And while cable currently has the fastest Internet service around, and is working on even faster cable modems, new offerings like Verizon's FiOS fiber-optic service promise even faster connection speeds.
When it comes to expanding video-on-demand offerings, cable companies might face the difficult task of convincing Hollywood studios and television networks to change how they release movies and how they let people watch them.
And then there's the issue of taking on too much at one time.
The nation's biggest cable company, Comcast, is still so busy digesting past mergers, rolling out new businesses and expanding in new markets that even chief operating officer Stephen Burke questions how much more his company can take on right now.
"It's very hard to do five new businesses all at the same time," Burke said. "We have 90,000 employees who have to learn every new product ... and if we do too many things too quickly," it could be troublesome.
That said, cable companies know they have to keep moving forward. Here are some of the areas where they're hoping to get their next hits:
● Video on demand
Programmers and cable operators have long been at odds over how to offer VOD while including revenue-generating ads. Cox may have come up with a solution that's good for the companies, if not entirely for viewers.
In a test in California, Cox and Walt Disney Co. plan to start offering prime-time shows and college football games on demand — but Cox will disable the fast-forward option that lets viewers skip ads. If the test is well received, Cox could roll out the service nationwide. The deal doesn't apply to Cox's DVR service.
Comcast, meanwhile, is experimenting with selling movies on demand the same day they're released on DVD. That would make cable more competitive with Internet downloading services and the local video store.
● Hyper-fast modem
Comcast Corp. Chief Executive Brian Roberts dazzled a cable industry audience, showing off for the first time in public new technology that enabled a data download speed of 150 megabits per second, or roughly 25 times the speed of today's standard cable modems.
The cost of modems that would support the technology, called "channel bonding," is "not that dissimilar to modems today" and the new modems could be available "within less than a couple years," Roberts said.
The new cable technology is crucial because the industry is competing with a speedy new offering called FiOS, a TV and Internet service that Verizon Communications Inc. is selling over a new fiber-optic network. The top speed currently available through FiOS is 50 megabits per second, but the network is already capable of providing 100 mbps and the fiber lines offer nearly unlimited potential.
In Arizona, Cox last week announced technology upgrades that speed up Internet connections from 25 to 29 percent.
● Cell-phone service
Time Warner, Comcast, Cox and Advance/Newhouse Communications are currently rolling out cell-phone service in select markets through a joint venture with Sprint/Nextel. Part of the idea is to expand cable's "triple play" into a "quadruple play."
Cell phones also let cable companies offer unique services to customers, such as the ability to program their home DVRs with their phones.
● Unified messaging
Comcast this year plans to roll out "SmartZone," a Web site where customers who subscribe to all three of its services can send and receive e-mail, check their voice mail online, send instant messages and create a customizable address book.
● Advanced advertising
Soon, the shows you like might come with advertising specifically for the products you like. Just as Google lets advertisers target ads based on what people search for on the Internet, cable companies want to target advertising to their subscribers based on what they watch.
"We have the technology to do that on television, and people are still watching a lot more television than they are surfing the Web," said Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt. "This is there for us for the picking."
● Video gaming
Emphasizing its potential, part of the exhibit hall at this year's Cable Show was dedicated exclusively to video games. But it could be a few more years before cable companies get serious about gaming.
Part of the problem is that the industry is still working on set-top boxes that allow more interactivity.
Though today's cable modems are fast, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts showed off a superfast "wideband" modem it plans to roll out in coming years that he predicts could take gaming via cable to the next level.