TiVo said it has inked a multi-year, strategic partnership with Buckeye CableSystem in which the MSO will lean on TiVo’s software and devices for a new multi-screen video offering.

Starting in June 2016, TiVo will become Buckeye CableSystem’s primary provider of the software, user experience and cloud services for across the operator’s service area, which includes parts of northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

Buckeye’s coming multi-screen offering will factor in TiVo-powered DVRs and thin clients, and TiVo web, mobile and tablet applications. Later, the MSO will also use a new TiVo-based non-DVR hybrid (QAM/IP) set-top box that will tie together the MSO’s linear and VOD offerings, plus over-the-top content from sources such as Hulu and YouTube, as well as TV Everywhere apps. That hybrid box, TiVo noted, will include software that will deliver traditional and broadband video without the need for a CableCARD.

Notably, the partnership is coming together as the FCC prepares to vote on a new set-top plan that would succeed the CableCARD regime and be applied to all forms of MVPDs, including cable and telco TV operators and satellite TV service providers.

The deal also extends TiVo’s reach among U.S. based independent operators, a group that includes RCN, Suddenlink, Mediacom Communications, Atlantic Broadband, Armstrong, Grande Communications, and GCI, among others. TiVo ended its fiscal Q3 with 6.46 million subs, including 5.51 million coming way of MVPD partnerships.

“We are excited about our new partnership with TiVo,” Jeff Abbas, president and general manager of Buckeye, said in a statement. “Deploying TiVo gives our customers access to both traditional and streaming content and the most advanced whole-home, multiscreen TV solution in the industry. TiVo allows Buckeye to rapidly deliver new technologies and immediately satisfy our subscribers’ increasing demand for broadband video.”

“We are proud to partner with Buckeye to provide next generation video to customers in Ohio and Michigan,” added Thomas Elam, VP and GM of TiVo's North American operator business.  “This brings Buckeye subscribers a wealth of content – both traditional cable and broadband streaming – in one, unified system. Buckeye viewers will have access to more content, and a better experience, than ever before.”

Poker Central, the startup programmer that has launched on assorted digital platforms, has obtained its first multichannel-TV launch, on Buckeye CableSystem in Ohio. Starting today, the network is available on Buckeye CableSystem channel 92 in standard definition and channel 579 in high definition in Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio.

In December, Poker Central (which launched in October 2015) reached an agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative which makes it easier for multichannel video programming distributors, including NCTC member Buckeye CableSystem, to add the network.

The launch partners announced the news at a press conference at Hollywood Casino Toledo.

Quotes from the launch release: 

“We are pleased to be able to offer our subscribers the very best and newest in entertainment and sports programming," said Jeff Abbas, president and general manager of Buckeye CableSystem. “Poker Central will find many passionate viewers among our customers in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.”

“Hollywood Casino Toledo is pleased to be a part of the launching of Poker Central in our area. We look forward to Poker Central providing unprecedented coverage of the poker world and insider access to the incredibly talented professionals who make the game so compelling.” said Jeffry Goodman, Vice President of Casino Operations, Hollywood Casino Toledo.

“The Internet made poker play global and universal, appealing to a new generation of poker players and giving rise to celebrities outside of Hollywood and traditional sports”, said Sid Eshleman, Chief Distribution Officer for Poker Central.

A set-top waiver being sought by a relatively small cable operator is raising a sizable stink at the Federal Communications Commission.

While TiVo claims to be “supportive” of a waiver request from Buckeye CableSystem so long as it’s paired with multiple conditions, the MSO’s pursuit is also facing some outright opposition.  Still, Buckeye’s pursuit does have the backing of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. 

Buckeye, an Ohio-based operator with 130,000 video subs, issued its waiver request on March 3, asking the FCC to bless a new QAM/IP hybrid set-top box that uses both integrated security and a downloadable form, claiming that the device would serve as the “linchpin” to an all-IP transition.  

The box in question is to be made Evolution Digital (see image above) and outfitted with a downloadable security system developed by Azuki Systems, which is now part of Ericsson. As designed, the box would combine a unidirectional QAM-based digital transport adapter (DTA) with an IP video interface. The DTA side would rely on integrated encryption, while the IP portion would use the downloadable system. Because the device would use an integrated form of security, it needs a waiver that would allow it to sidestep the integrated security ban that took effect in July 2007.

Buckeye’s request comes after Charter Communications and Cablevision Systems requested, and were granted, FCC waivers allowing the use of dual-security setups that rely on integrated security systems and new downloadable versions.

TiVo Seeks Conditions

In comments filed March 27, TiVo sought conditions on Buckeye’s waiver while also urging the FCC to pursue new rules that would produce a successor to the CableCARD that could be applied to all multichannel video programming distributors, and not just cable operators. The cable industry has urged the FCC to kill the mandate altogether and to let market forces, not more government rules, decide the future.

Among its desired conditions, TiVo wants Buckeye to “state categorically” that its “product would lack any storage capacity (including cloud storage), any connection to a device other than a display, and any other advanced functionality.”  Further, TiVo said, Buckeye should be required to phase out its reliance on switched digital video (SDV) and ensure that retail devices can access all channels “without operator-supplied equipment.” Today, TiVo boxes require a separate Tuning Adapter device to receive channels delivered via SDV.

TiVo, which relies heavily on CableCARD technology today, argued that the FCC “should not embrace without proof the fiction that Buckeye’s ‘downloadable’ system would promise national interoperability comparable to CableCARDs.” Specifically, TiVo wants the FCC to hold off on a waiver until Buckeye shows how its IPTV system would interoperable with retail devices.

"We are supportive of Buckeye’s waiver request as long as some concerns are addressed,” Thomas Elam, TiVo’s vice president and general manager, U.S. operator business, said in a statement to Multichannel News, claiming that TiVo is seeking a “modest reduction in scope of the waiver.”

"Our primary concern is to ensure that there is a focus on a long term successor to CableCARD, while allowing operator like Buckeye to deliver a next generation HD-STB,” Elam added.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association also wants the FCC to create a CableCARD successor and is opposing Buckeye’s waiver request.

NCTA Backs Buckeye

In its comments, the NCTA said the FCC should grant the Buckeye waiver request and to reject TiVo’s “laundry list of conditions and restrictions that would sharply limit the benefit of the hybrid set-top,” including the ability to access network-based recordings or share content over home networks over secure links.

“TiVo’s response is to ask the Commission to erect a series of obstacles to Buckeye’s

waiver request, the net effect of which would likely be to scuttle Buckeye’s plans,” the NCTA wrote. “Arguably, TiVo is seeking these restrictions in order to steer Buckeye, and potentially other cable operators, towards use of a TiVo solution.” 

In Buckeye’s follow-up comments, it held that that TiVo is attempting to bury the waiver request “beneath a stack of other TiVo-related proceedings…and unnecessary TiVo-centric conditions.”

Buckeye said the IP side of the hybrid box is application based, and uses the type of digital rights management technology that secured video on a variety of consumer devices, including laptops, mobile phones, and Roku boxes.

Buckeye stressed that TiVo’s SDV condition is unrelated to its waiver request, noting that it has committed to continued CableCARD support and to transition at least 85% of its video services to IP within 36 months of receiving a blessing for the proposed hybrid box.

Charter Communications also weighed in, because TiVo aims to reintroduce its issues with the Charter waiver to the Buckeye proceeding, noting that it is “highly motivated” to continue supporting CableCARDS to current or new TiVo customers. “They are still cable customers,” the MSO explained.

Charter also argued that the “Commission should not be selecting one universal ‘winning’ solution, nor should it halt consumer-friendly, cable innovation while it considers action.” On that point, it noted that the market did not embrace the FCC’s mandates for the CableCARD or the requirement to include an IEEE 1394 connector in every HD set-top.