Cablecos ponder networked DVRs in wake of Cablevision ruling

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: August 8, 2008 9:23:14 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Cablecos ponder networked DVRs in wake of  
Cablevision ruling

Cablecos ponder networked DVRs in wake of Cablevision ruling
By Nate Anderson | Published: August 07, 2008 - 08:35PM CT

<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080807-cablecos-ponder-networked-dvrs-in-wake-of-cablevision-ruling.html 
>

Corporate earnings calls may sound like they're about as much fun as a  
hearse, but the occasional interesting nugget does emerge. For  
instance, Time Warner cable has just acknowledged that it would love  
to roll out a legal-for-now network DVR, assuming that the recent  
Cablevision appeal stands.

After being tangled for several years in the court system, the  
Cablevision lawsuit was settled by an appeals court this week, and the  
court ruled in favor of the "network DVR." The gear for this system  
would actually remain in the cable company's back office, cutting down  
substantially on upfront hardware investment and support costs;  
customers would access it though their remote controls. Each household  
would still need to choose which shows to record, though. Cable  
companies would be on far shakier legal ground if they simply began  
archiving their entire feed and offering it back to customers for  
anytime viewing.
According Multichannel News, which listened in on the Time Warner  
call, CEO Glenn Britt talked up the network DVR tech and said his  
company would love to roll it out.

"We’ve said for a long time that a centralized network DVR is a better  
engineering solution than having hard drives all over everybody’s  
home," he said. "If this particular court case is upheld, we will  
deploy that."

Ars asked Comcast, another of the country's leading cable operators in  
terms of subscriber size, if it planned to follow suit. The company  
said that discussions about a rollout had taken place in the past, but  
it was too early to say for sure what the cable giant might do.

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