Charter Communications has announced native deployment of HBO Max and YouTube on its cloud-based video operating system, Spectrum Guide. 

The two services join Netflix as the only apps available on Charter's Spectrum Guide platform. Charter said that the two added video platforms would work on "eligible devices." 

Like Netflix, which was deployed on Spectrum Guide back in 2018, HBO Max will only be available on newer model Worldbox 2.0 set-tops, which a Charter rep told us, "make up a majority of our deployed Worldboxes."

The YouTube app will play on all Worldbox set-tops. 

Notably, Spectrum Guide was developed a decade ago as a means of keeping older set-tops viable--the system relies on processing of video images and audio in the cloud. It appears that for streaming apps, however, a certain level of computer processing performacne is required in the client device. 

“As the video landscape continues to change, we are evolving our products and making it easier for our customers to watch what they want by providing access to streaming apps from convenient launch points within the Spectrum TV experience,” said Elena Ritchie, group VP of video experience for Charter. “We look forward to growing this library and expect to launch more streaming video apps in the coming months.”

Spectrum Guide customers with the right customer premises equipment can tune directly into channel 2003 for YouTube or 2004 for HBO Max, or they can click on the appropriate logos in the app menus. 

Charter is the second biggest pay TV operator in the U.S., with just over 16 million subscribers. It only trails Comcast, which natively integrated HBO Max into its Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex platforms last December. 

Charter Communications dropped a few technology tidbits into its Q3 call Thursday, touching on activities and plans involving video, broadband and wireless/mobile.

Charter, company president and CEO Tom Rutledge said, had deployed more than 1 million WorldBox devices across its national footprint by the end of Q3. Those hybrid IP/QAM devices use the company’s new cloud-based guide and a downloadable security platform that allows the company to deploy it in all systems – Charter legacy systems as well as the former Time Warner Cable and Bright House Network footprints.

Charter originally tapped vendors such as Cisco Systems (before it sold its CPE business to Technicolor) and Humax to make the WorldBox, but since tapped Arris to aid a WorldBox 2.0 project that aims to be more cost-efficient than its predecessor.

RELATED: Arris ‘Racing to the Finish Line’ on WorldBox 2.0

“Going forward, WorldBox will be the only set-top box we buy and will be the workhorse for our all-digital project,” Rutledge said, adding that Charter plans to deploy its new Spectrum Guide to new customers in former TWC and Bright House markets next year.

While Charter hopes the WorldBox will help to add attractiveness to its pay TV offering, Rutledge noted that one pressure on the video bundle (in addition to the big one, price) comes in part from password sharing and multi-stream OTT products that can exacerbate that issue.

On the broadband front, Rutledge said Charter will introduce gigabit speeds using DOCSIS 3.1 “in several key markets” over the next couple of months.

Charter plans to eventually buy D3.1 modems exclusively, as the products are expected to cost about the same as D3.0 devices (D3.1 modems are hybrids that support spectrum used for D3.0 and D3.1 services).

Currently Charter offers internet speeds of 100 Mbps in more than 75% of its footprint, up from 50% at the end of Q2, and expects to offer a minimum of 100 Mbps across nearly all its passings by year-end, Rutledge said.

Charter is also on track to launch a wireless service in 2018 using the MVNO agreement with Verizon that it inherited from the TWC deal. Rutledge offered more color, as Charter expects to make that operational by the second quarter of next year and that field trials are underway with Charter employees.

Rutledge also talked up Charter’s cooperative relationship with Comcast with respect to mobile and wireless, which includes WiFi network management and the MVNO deal that both companies have with Verizon.

RELATED: Comcast, Charter to Partner on Wireless

“We have an opportunity together to run the business more effectively from a back-office perspective,” he said, adding later that the use of WiFi in and out of the home will help Charter keep its MVNO-related costs in check.

Arris CEO Bruce McClelland offered a small glimpse into the progress being made with WorldBox 2.0, a next-gen video platform that Charter Communications expects to roll out across its footprint.

“We’re racing to the finish line as we speak,” Bruce McClelland, Arris’s CEO, said on the company’s Q2 earnings call, but didn’t offer an update on timing of Charter’s deployment.

“Certainly, the sleeves are up in terms of development, and integration activities are progressing,” added Larry Robinson, president of Arris’s consumer premises equipment division, added.

Last fall, Arris announced it was selected as a “key participant” in the development of WorldBox 2.0. Like the earlier version (Cisco Systems, which has since sold its set-top unit to Technicolor, and Humax were among the known initial suppliers of the device), the 2.0 iteration of the device will also be a hybrid IP/QAM platform but is expected to be more cost-effective than its predecessor.  

RELATED: Charter, Arris Ink Warrant Agreement

The new WorldBox platform will also support a cloud-based guide and user experience guide that involves ActiveVideo, now a joint venture co-owned by Arris and Charter.

RELATED: Arris, Charter Close $135M ActiveVideo Acquisition

In Q2, Arris CPE-related sales were down 1.2% year-on-year, with video devices representing $667 million, or 58%, of that business and broadband driving $489 million, or 42%, of that total.

The bright spot was broadband sales CPE, with sales rising 15.2% sequentially and 17.8% year-over-year. Arris said DOCSIS unit volume shipments reached record levels in Q2, via a combo of DOCSIS 3.0 and DOCSIS 3.1 devices.

Out on the network, Arris said it’s making progress with a distributed access architecture (DAA) approach that enables MSOs to digitize their optics and place some capacity deeper into the network.

Arris has trials underway with the E6000 operating as a virtual MAC core and remote PHY modules in the company’s existing fiber node platforms, Dan Whalen, president of Arris’s network and cloud unit, said.

Arris, he added, expects to reach full commercial deployments with DAA in Q1 2018 “with several customers.”

RELATED: ‘Remote PHY’ Rising

Arris’s proposed acquisition of Ruckus Wireless is delayed, as it hinges on the closing of the Brocade-Broadcom merger, though Arris still anticipates closing that deal in early Q4.

RELATED: Arris Still Confident It Will Land Ruckus

Arris posted Q2 GAAP revenue of $1.66 billion, down $66 million, or 4%, and GAAP net income of 16 cents per diluted share.

Arris expects Q2 revenue of $1.74 billion to $1.79 billion, and GAAP net income per diluted share of $0.23 to $0.28.

Arris has been tabbed as a “key participant" in the development of WorldBox 2.0, a next-gen video platform that Charter Communications will be rolling across its footprint.

The announcement for the next-gen WorldBox also comes on the heels of a warrant agreement in which Charter can buy up to 6 million shares of Arris based on certain product purchases over the next two years.  

RELATED: Charter, Arris Ink Warrant Agreement

Like the first generation of the WorldBox, the 2.0 version will also be a hybrid IP/QAM platform that features a cloud-based interface. However, the new iteration, they said, will expand on Charter’s current downloadable conditional access capabilities and enhance legacy hardware-based security systems implemented across Charter’s new footprint.

RELATED: Charter Lights Data Centers for Downloadable Security

That combination will enable faster and more cost-effective deployment of the new platform, the companies said, noting that the new devices will support built-in security processing capabilities that are “now available in generic chipsets.” WorldBox 2.0 will also feature advanced graphics capabilities and processing power, they said.

Arris, which acquired U.K.-based Pace plc in January 2016 and Motorola Home in 2013, is the world’s largest supplier of set-top boxes, and apparently will be joining Charter’s mix of WorldBox  suppliers. Technicolor (via the acquisition of Cisco Systems’s set-top and CPE business nearly a year ago) and Humax are the other known WorldBox suppliers.

RELATED: Humax Enters Charter’s ‘Worldbox’ Orbit

Arris and Charter are also joint owners of ActiveVideo, the vendor that is enabling the MSO’s cloud-powered Spectrum guide on Charter’s prior-generation set-tops. Charter has already introduced Spectrum Guide in markets such as Fort Worth, Texas; and Reno, Nev. It’s made to run on the WorldBox as well as legacy, MPEG/QAM-only set-top.

Speaking on Charter’s Q2 call in August, company CEO Tom Rutledge said the plan is to have Spectrum Guide available in most legacy Charter markets by the end of 2016, and to launch it in some of the larger former Time Warner Cable markets by mid-2017, followed by rollouts in other TWC and Bright House markets through 2018.

"While Charter is focused on providing a secure video product on all devices, WorldBox 2.0 provides the same advanced video experience consumers are demanding on traditional television sets, and gives Charter the flexibility to deploy a single platform across our entire expanded network," Jim Blackley, Charter’s EVP, engineering and IT, said in a statement. "Our ongoing work with ARRIS – in developing this platform, including the downloadable security component – and the establishment of the warrant program, speaks to the strength of our long-standing relationship and the value of ARRIS's expertise in large-scale, next-generation deployments."

"We share Charter's vision for a new era of entertainment technology that leverages the power of the network and cloud to adapt to its subscribers' evolving needs," added Bruce McClelland, CEO of Arris. "With WorldBox 2.0, we're bringing to bear our expertise and scale to help Charter deliver next-gen entertainment experiences that will transform the way that its millions of subscribers will watch TV and access their favorite content on traditional television sets."