New York
– Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), the nation’s fifth-largest cable TV provider, plans to begin deploying
its controversial Remote Storage Digital Video Recorder service in April and
expects it to be available to all of the company’s 3 million subscribers by
year’s end, Multichannel News reported. Speaking on a conference call to
discuss earnings Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge said the set-top box-free service
would initially offer the ability to pause live TV, before a digital video
recorder service with limited functionality is rolled out in April.
Instead of
storing recorded programs on a set-top box in subscribers’ homes, Cablevision’s
RS-DVR service will store them on the company’s own servers — and then stream
them on-demand to subscribers’ televisions.
The company initially planned to
launch the service back in 2006, but was sued by broadcasters who see the
service as providing unauthorized retransmissions of their programs.
A federal
court judge agreed with broadcasters, but that ruling was overturned on appeal
in 2008.
The U.S. Justice Dept. sided with Cablevision in a court filing, and in June 2009 the Supreme
Court declined to hear an appeal from the broadcasters.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uik4g
(Multichannel News)
http://snipurl.com/uikn7
(DMW previous coverage)
