Expo Spotlights Shift To Digital; Cable Firms Tout New Services; Industry executives see big potential from digital video recorders, other offerings.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: MIKE ANGELL

In the battle between the two top broadband Internet platforms -- cable modems and digital subscriber lines -- cable got a high-profile endorsement Monday.

Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president, admitted he recently switched to a cable modem from DSL. "It's much faster," Page told an audience to big applause at the cable industry's biggest trade show, the 2005 National Show, held in San Francisco this week.

Winning over customers, especially tech-savvy ones like Page, is a major theme of the show. Most of America's 73 million cable subscribers have only basic service today, and just a third of them are capable of getting new services such as fast Internet and video on demand.

The phone industry, meanwhile, is breathing down cable's neck with new video services. But cable executives say they're in a good position to win more consumer dollars. They're better poised to deliver entertainment when and where people want it, industry officials say. And they can customize their content to meet subscribers' tastes.

"We're going from television to personalization," said Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts. "Consumers are going to be in control of their (cable) experience."

The switch from regular cable to digital is driving much of this trend. There were 24.3 million digital cable subscribers as of the end of last September, the NCTA says, up 13% from a year earlier. Digital cable, which costs about $20 more a month than regular cable, can link to cable modems, video-on-demand services and digital video recorders.