Seemingly undaunted by a potential Supreme Court hearing on its legality, Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) is moving ahead with its long-delayed plan to deploy a network-based digital video recorder (DVR) service next year.
Cablevision has deployed the service on its campus for internal use and is testing the software that powers it for errors. The company sees it as a cheaper, faster and simpler means to provide its customers DVR functionality without them buying in-home DVRs.
That’s all according to Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge, who spoke late yesterday at the UBS Annual Global Media Communications Conference.
“It’s cheaper, easier, more customer friendly and easier to sell,” said Rutledge of the service, in which content resides in the network, as does storage currently handled via hard drives in in-home DVR units.
The cable giant COO estimates his firm can save $100 per install of the service as opposed to a DVR device as current digital set-top boxes can be equipped to use the service via software download, obviating the need for, or expense of, truck rolls.
“It has all the functionality of a DVR,” Rutledge claimed, adding, “You can’t tell the difference.”
Network-based services typically attract operators because they can use resources such as servers and storage in their nets and they can be centrally managed.
“We can buy storage in bulk at a substantially lower price,” said Rutledge, rather than providing devices such as DVRs with internal hard drives.
Rutledge says Cablevision still plans to deploy the service ― initially slated for launch in 2006 ― next year, unless the Supreme Court hears a case put before it by a copyright alliance that challenges the legality of the offering, and votes to overturn a lower court ruling that gave it a green light.
The cableco had announced plans to launch the service next year, but after the Supreme Court challenge was initiated, it was unclear if, and when, the company would proceed with the service.
The network DVR service would also enable Cablevision to “create products that are less than a DVR,” said Rutledge. The COO explained that one such offering could be a remote-initiated pause of live TV that would let a viewer seeing a caller ID presented on the TV screen take the call without missing programming.
And while movie studios and content owners have long been opposed to the offering, Rutledge claimed the service “can create new rights opportunities for rights holders.”
The Cablevision COO would not say when next year the service will be deployed.
