Advanced Television

PVR

Wanna Roadmap? Get a Brazilian…

Now I’ve got your attention I’ll explain. A session here at Cable Congress posed the question what should operator’s digital home strategies be? No surprise that everybody nodded enthusiastically to enabling the home network, developing the Set Top as the home gateway and delivering ‘blow me away’ user interfaces. But panellists also admitted that this […]

February 15, 2011

VOD in 50% US homes by 2016

The revised year-end 2016 forecast for DVR Subscriber Households now stands at 61.8 million (50 per cent of TV households), up from 37.9 million (32 per cent of TV households) as of the end of Q3 2010. By 2016, it is expected that VOD (redefined to include OTT services like Netflix, Vudu and Hulu) will […]

January 27, 2011

Microsoft files to stop TiVo imports

Microsoft has filed a US trade complaint seeking to prevent TiVo from importing television set-top boxes.  The complaint submitted to the US International Trade Commission in Washington accuses TiVo of infringing four patents. Microsoft is asking that TiVo be barred from importing the digital-video recorders, which are primarily made in Mexico and sold in the […]

January 25, 2011

Comcast live tablet streaming and 3000hrs of on-demand

Comcast has revealed plans to enable in-home streaming for live and On Demand content this year on Apple’s iPad as well as Android powered tablets. Later this year, customers will be able to watch live news, TV shows and movies in their homes whenever they want. Comcast also made two more announcements about its Xfinity […]

January 6, 2011

Rovi scoops Sonic Solutions

  Digital entertainment technology specialist Rovi Corporation is to acquire digital video processing, playback and distribution technologies provider Sonic Solutions in a stock and cash transaction valued at some $720 million and the per share value of Sonic common stock at signing of the agreement is $14.17, a 38.2 per cent premium to Sonic’s 30 […]

December 23, 2010By Colin Mann

Motorola: Viewers moving away from scheduled TV content

British viewers are moving from traditional video consumption habits to a more varied video content ‘diet’, according to the UK-market findings from global research conducted by Motorola Mobility, a subsidiary of Motorola. Motorola Mobility’s 2010 Media Engagement Barometer shows that while free-to-air services are available to 67 per cent of global viewers, compared to 57 […]

December 17, 2010

Study: Shopping behaviour unaffected by DVRs

Watching a television show from a digital video recorder (DVR) gives viewers a chance to skip commercials, but new research suggests that owning a DVR does not influence the demand for advertised products despite its ad-skipping feature. It appears that, only a small percentage of ads were fast-forwarded by DVR users who participated in the […]

December 15, 2010

Comcast tests hybrid Internet-cable device

Comcast is testing a new service that knits together television and the Internet, in an effort to compete against other integrated service providers. Under the new system, which is being tested in Augusta, content flows through a set-top box that combines features of the Internet with those of a DVR. Users can watch and search […]

December 14, 2010

Virgin unveils TiVo taster

The first images of Virgin Media’s new TiVo service have been released, showcasing a simple user interface for users to find their favourite programmes TiVo, the US DVR pioneer, is set to “revolutionise the way customers watch on-demand and pay-TV programmes,” promised Virgin Media when it first announced plans to offer the service. The new […]

November 29, 2010

TiVo deals fail to turn round losses

Despite a slew of licensing deals with cable companies and this week’s iPad app announcement, TiVo is still struggling to turn around its losses. The company posted a net loss of $20.6 million for the quarter, up on a loss of $6.4 million during the same period a year ago. Revenue for the quarter dropped […]

November 24, 2010