Court Ruling Could Breathe New Life into Network DVR

Long-Planned Cablevision Service Had Scared Hollywood

Long forgotten, or at least back-burnered with the gas off, network-based DVR services may finally be moving to the fore of operators’ minds.

The offering proposed by cable giant Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) and blocked by Hollywood studios in courts two years ago, appears poised for a breakthrough.

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for New York ruled that the cableco’s Remote-Storage Digital Video Recorder, or RS-DVR, does not directly infringe on copyright rules and should be treated the same as standalone DVRs.

The ruling could open the floodgates for network-based DVR services, which telcos and cablecos alike have argued are cheaper to offer, easier to maintain and more flexible than those that sit in the consumer’s home, like TiVo (TIVO).

While some may think a potential rise in network-DVR would mean a drop for those who make CPE units, that’s unlikely given that the largest maker, TiVo, has evolved beyond making the boxes, focusing instead on the software inside them and precious ad-skipping data the devices generate.

Ironically, many content owners, such as broadcasters, have shown interest in the service, beyond those that took the initial legal action to stop Cablevision from deploying its offering long ago. Paramount Pictures, NBC Universal and Twentieth Century Fox then claimed it violated copyright laws.

But since the initial suit, advancements have been made in protecting content security and access, as well as digital right management. Talk at recent industry events it that copyright concerns have waned, with the higher priority becoming finding additional ways to monetize content.

Also, in the extended time since the service was blocked, operators of all kinds learned a great deal about storing and delivering long-form content from their networks, thanks largely to the rise of video-on-demand. (VoD).

Premises-based recording of content has been widely embraced, thanks largely to DVR pioneer TiVo Inc. Telcos have capitalized on the appeal of DVRs by enabling customers to remotely control and program them from the web and certain wireless devices.

While network-based services as alternatives to on-premises gear such as phone, ACD, voice response and messaging systems have flourished, network-DVR was destined for a longer evolution because it involved content.

But times have changed. It only remains to be seen if movie studio owner minds have too.

Related Articles

Cablevision Efforts Could Open Network-DVR Floodgates

Cablevision Appeals DVR Court Ruling

TiVolution: How the DVR Pioneer Is Pushing Beyond the Box

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines

Read Comments [1]