AT&T says it’s listening to its homebound customers and increasing the number of simultaneous streams available on its AT&T TV platform to 20 from three. 

The change won’t affect the price of the service, the telecom said. 

Notably, users can only engage in 20 simultaneous streams from one IP address. Out-of-home streams — those not tied to the same internet protocol address — are limited to three. 

Also, some of AT&T’s programming deals restrict it from offering 20 simultaneous streams for certain networks, notably Fox channels, Starz, Showtime, the NHL Network and PBS. 

AT&T said it is also turning its 500-hour DVR service, a $10-a-month add-on, into an unlimited recording offering. The 20-hour cloud DVR, which comes with the base service, is unchanged. 

AT&T finished 2020 down another 5.1 million sub­scribers across its four pay TV platforms. It has struck a deal to spin off DirecTV, U-verse TV and AT&T TV Now into a separate company with private-equity firm TPG.

NEW ORLEANS - TiVo today officially unveiled what had become the worst kept secret in the consumer technology world, its Edge DVR, which it said is now available.

And in more surprising news, the San Jose, Calif. technology company also announced TiVo+, a new video network for exclusively for TiVo customers that delivers live-streamed channels and thousands of VOD titles in what TiVo calls “an app-free environment.”

Related: TiVo Readies Arris-Made ‘Edge’ DVR

Available in both direct-to-consumer over-the-the-air and cable customer models, the CommScope-manufactured Edge is an upgrade over TiVo’s Bolt DVR, which was introduced back in 2015. The Edge is a six-tuner, 4K-capable device that includes Dolby Atmos, and Dolby Vision HDR.

The TiVo Edge for antenna is available now for $349.99 and requires a service plan of $6.99 a month, $69.99 annually or a one-time all-in plan for $249.99. TiVo Edge for cable is available for $399.99 and requires a service plan of $14.99 monthly, $149.99 annually or a one-time all-in plan for $549.99.

As for TiVo+, the vendor said it has partnered with Xumo, Jukin Media and other top video publishers to make channels like TMZ, Outside TV+, PowerNation, FailArmy Unsolved Mysteries, Hells Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Food52 and Ameba available at launch.

The platform, TiVo said, is “coming soon.”

Continuing to straddle the line in the video industry while responding to new competition in the consumer networked DVR market, TiVo has announced a new retail version of its Bolt DVR targeted directly to cord cutters.

The Bolt OTA for Antenna delivers four tuners and a one terabyte hard drive capable of recording 150 hours of HD programming. The 4K capable box includes TiVo’s popular user experience, as well as access to popular OTT services, and retails for $250. TiVo is cutting its monthly DVR service charge for the Bolt OTA from $14.99 a month to $6.99 a month. There as also a $250 lifetime service fee option.

Related: Amazon Rolls Out Network DVR ‘Fire TV Recast’

TiVo has targeted the cord cutter market for some time with its Roamio OTA DVR. But it hasn’t offered an OTA retail version of the Bolt since it introduced the set-top product to the cable TV service provider market four years ago. But giving the retail market the same tools as it offers to service providers does not put TiVo’s two product lines in conflict, the company insisted.

“For several years TiVo has offered a product targeting cord cutters with the Roamio OTA DVR. The new Bolt OTA for antenna is an upgrade aimed at this market,” said Ted Malone, VP of consumer products and services for TiVo. “TiVo also offers a six-tuner version of the Bolt Vox designed specifically for digital cable customers. With the rapidly changing media and entertainment landscape, cable operators recognize that they face a range of competition--over-the-top providers, virtual MPVD operators (Playstation Vue, YouTube TV, Sling TV), among others – offering cord cutter options, which are more disruptive than TiVo’s Bolt OTA.

TiVo is extending availability of its premium DVR to the retail over-the-air market just after Amazon debuted its own network DVR, the Fire TV Recast, which sells for $230 and includes no service fee. 

After teasing the world a month ago with a product development leak, Amazon has officially rolled out its network DVR, the Fire TV Recast.

Retailing for $230, the device connects to an HD antenna and a power source, but can live in any optimal area of the home. It has no video inputs or outputs—users tap into its streams via Wi-Fi using Amazon Fire TV streaming media players, Fire TV Edition TVs, or Echo Show devices. They can also use the all-new Fire TV app to stream on compatible Fire tablet, iOS and Android devices

Related; Amazon Developing Networked DVR for Fire TV: Report

It’s similar to Dish Network’s AirTV device, but the Fire TV Recast has its own storage. The base model includes a 500 GB hard drive, capable of storing 75 hours of HD programming, and two tuners. A primo $280 model bumps up the horsepower to 1 TB of storage (150 hours) and four tuners.

“We are focused on making Fire TV an easy way to watch all the entertainment you love, whether it’s through streaming video services, cable and satellite providers, or even local broadcast stations,” said Marc Whitten, VP of Amazon Fire TV, in a statement. “Now with Fire TV Recast, we’ve made it simpler to find, watch, and record live over-the-air TV at home and on your mobile devices.”

Yeah, just what the market needs—another skinny live-streamed bundle.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based SiliconDust, maker of the HDHomeRun line of streaming over-the-air tuners, has quietly rolled out a virtual MVPD product including 45 channels for $35 a month.

Starting over the weekend, owners of HDHomeRun streaming devices could sign up for the live-streamed service, which touts ESPN, TNT, CNN and AMC, among its channels.

Retailing for around $120, the HDHomeRun Connect hooks up with an OTA antenna and allows users to stream broadcast networks to connected TVs and mobile devices within the home. SiliconDust recently introduced a DVR extension that lets users record, pause and rewind live-streamed content.

Related: Plex Flexes Live TV Muscles

“Just like you can today, with your channels from your antenna, now you can also record episodes and season programs with HDHomeRun DVR,” the company said in a statement. “All of the functions you are used to using when recording over the air TV will also be available with these new streaming channels. You will see a whole new set of channels added to your line up in our patented SliceView channel list. They’ll show up like any other channel in your TV guide, and the shows on these channels will be recordable just like any other show. Also, don’t forget when you activate the full DVR service you now also have 14 days of guide data so you can plan your recordings well in advance.”

SiliconDust’s product line spans consumer and commercial devices, with the latter line of multicast live-streaming devices combining ATSC tuners and CableCARD functionality, and aimed cable operators.

The consumer line of HDHomeRun devices has proved popular with some tech enthusiasts. But it’s unclear as to how many of the devices are actually in the market.

The virtual MPVD business is currently crowded with large competitors, each operating at a loss in attempt to grow subscriber bases and a critical mass of scale at which content costs go down.

Related: Dish DBS Officially Launches AirTV

Among vMVPDs, SiliconDust seems to be most closely competing with Dish Network’s Sling TV, which is complemented by AirTV OTA streaming devices. Most other vMVPDs have instead aggressively sought out deals with local broadcast affiliates rather than integrate OTA schemes into their services. 

Amazon is reportedly in development on a networked DVR that would compliment its Fire TV OTT device by offering the ability to record live TV.

Citing an unnamed source familiar with Amazon’s plan, Bloomberg said the online retail giant is developing the device within the confines of its Lab 126 R&D center—the unit that developed Fire TV, as well as the Echo product line. Bloomberg said the DVR project has been dubbed “Frank.” Amazon is not confirming the project at this point.

Related: Amazon Unleashes the Fire TV Cube

According to the report, the DVR would connect to a user’s Wi-Fi network (and not directly to a TV, as is the case with traditional DVRs).

“Frank” would record live-streamed video, and users would access that video over Wi-Fi, using OTT devices like Fire TV, connected smart TVs, laptop computers, tablets and smart phones.

The report did not make clear as to whether the device would merely record over-the-air broadcast channels, or live-streamed content from Amazon Channels, as well.

Bloomberg tied a 10% drop in TiVo’s stock price Friday to the Amazon leak. However, as TiVo exits the hardware business, Variety noted that the Frank sounds more like networked DVR devices made by Tablo

The Bloomberg report said that Amazon also plans to update its Fire TV stick with new software.

Fire TV over-the-top devices have been hot sellers for Amazon, allowing the company to effectively execute its strategy of using video services to expose customers to its broader retail environment. 

Nuvvyo has introduced the Tablo Dual Lite, an over-the-air TV/DVR tailored for cord-cutters that takes a “bring your own storage” approach and represents a lower-cost variant of the Tablo Dual, a product with integrated storage that was introduced in May 2017.

Both products integrate two tuners, but the new Tablo Dual Lite sells for $139.99, undercutting the cost of the recently price-reduced Tablo Dual (currently at $219.99).

RELATED: Nuvyyo Cuts Price on Tablo Dual 

The Tablo Dual Lite, which includes dual-band 802.11ac WiFi and works with Tablo apps for iOS and Android smart phones, Roku players and Roku TVs, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV devices, Apple TV boxes, Xbox One consoles, smart TVs from Samsung (Tizen-based) and LG Electronics (WebOS 2.0+), and Chromecast streaming adapters.

The Tablo Dual Lite will be available in the U.S. starting April 1 at Best Buy stores and at BestBuy.com.

While the more expensive version of the Tablo Dual integrates 64 gigabytes of storage (with the option to add more via external USB storage), the Lite option works in tandem only with external USB storage (up to 8 terabytes).

“The Tablo DUAL 64GB quickly became one of our most popular OTA DVRs, but some TV fans still prefer the ‘bring your own storage’ approach of our original 2-Tuner model,” Grant Hall, CEO of Nuvyyo, said in a statement.

RELATED: Channel Master Targets Cord-Cutters With ‘Stream+’

Tablo owners must also purchase an OTA antenna, and have the option to subscribe to Nuvvyo’s TV guide data service for $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year, or $149.99 for a one-time lifetime subscription.

The Tablo product family is one of product options that are tailored for cord-cutters. TiVo, Channel Master and AirTV (a unit of Dish) have also developed products geared to support that market.

RELATED: AirTV Tests 'Local Channels DVR' Option for Android TV-Powered Player

Nuvyyo said it is rolling out a slate of “advanced recording” features for its line of Tablo-branded DVRs that integrate free, over-the-air TV broadcasts.

The enhancements, delivered in a staged firmware update, include a set of features that allow for more precise DVR scheduling tools and management options, including:

-Adjust Start/Top Time: Allows users to start recordings up to 10 minutes early and end up to three hours after the scheduled time of a TV program.

-Keep X Recordings: Lets users retain all episodes or only a select number of airings.

-Recording Channel Selector: Users can tap this feature to select which channel to record from, if multiple channels happen to be airing a favorite program.

Those new features can be applied to single airings or to a series for Tablo users with an active subscription. The optional TV guide data subscription for Tablo devices sell for $4.99 per month, $49.99 annually, or for $149.99 for a lifetime subscription.

The update (firmware version 2.2.18) is being rolled out to the following models: Tablo 2-Tuner, Tablo 4-Tuner and the recently introduced Tablo Dual, and can be accessed via the advanced recording settings via the Tablo Channel on Roku devices, and Tablo apps for Amazon Fire TV boxes, Apple TV devices, the Android TV-powered Nvidia Shield TV, web browsers and mobile devices.

RELATED: Nuvyyo Cuts Price on Tablo Dual

Those features will also made available on additional Tablo-supported devices and Tablo platforms including the Tablo DVR Engine for the Nvidia Shield TV in the coming months, the company said.

Those Tablo boxes OTA signals and send them wirelessly to supported devices that are connected to the user’s home network.

“With these powerful advanced recording features, we believe Tablo now offers best mix of feature set, ease-of-use, and cross-device support of any antenna DVR solution,” Grant Hall, CEO of Nuvyyo, said in a statement.

More than half of TV viewers -- 52% -- say they watch their favorite shows online, while 48% watch through an MVPD set-top, according to Hub Entertainment Research's annual "Conquering Content" report, published last week.

Hub said this year marked the first time since it began tracking viewing patterns in 2014 that viewers are "more likely to say they watch a recently discovered favorite show from an online source than through their pay TV set-top box."

The report reinforces last week's Parks Associates study that found viewers favor subscription video-on-demand services over virtual MVPD services.

Related: SVOD Services Still Dominate Paid OTT Landscape

Hub noted that cable/satellite set-top box use has "been steadily declining over the past several years." In 2014, 64% of viewers watched their favorite show via an STB (either live, on a DVR or through the MVPD’s video-on-demand platform). At that time, just 31% said they watched their favorite show online (via an SVOD service such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon, through a network or MVPD site/app, or through other online sources like iTunes).

The past year saw a 12% jump (from 40% to 52%) in the online viewership preference.

“These findings suggest that the aggressive investment SVODs are making in original and exclusive content is paying big dividends,” said Peter Fondulas, co-author of the study and principal at Hub. “In this research and other recent studies, we see clear evidence that high-profile online exclusives generate buzz that draws consumers to these platform, which not only helps attract brand new subscribers, but also builds loyalty among current customers.”

Hub's Jon Giegengack, co-author of the study, characterized the SVOD companies as transforming themselves "from technology companies that distribute content, into entertainment companies that create it."

Giegengack also observed that the amount of new content "is greater than the disposable time available to watch it." He predicted that in the future, "the share of total TV time may turn out to be a more important way to evaluate platforms than looking at the number of subscribers.”

Hub conducted its research in October among 2,214 U.S. consumers with broadband access who watch at least five hours of TV per week.

TiVo is beefing up its retail product line with new versions of the 4K-capable Bolt DVR and Mini client device that support voice-based search and navigation and carry the company’s new “Vox” branding.

RELATED: TiVo May Soon Get Its Voice

The new Bolt Vox and Mini Vox work in tandem with TiVo’s first voice-powered remote control, called the Vox Remote.

The updated video platform, the first major retail refresh since TiVo and Rovi completed their merger last September, enables voice search across live TV, recorded DVR content, VOD titles and integrated OTT services such as Netflix and Hulu. It also supports a new interface that that bakes in personalized recommendations (what TiVo calls a “SmartBar”) and “intelligent predictions” based on prior viewing behavior. Also new is QuickView, an element that lets viewers see shows playing on different tuners built into the DVR, and a one-line channel guide.

In addition to enabling conversational-style voice searching (i.e. “Show me movies with Tom Cruise"), the new voice component is also tied to other TiVo features such as SkipMode and OnePass (i.e. “Create a OnePass for Modern Family).

The baseline TiVo Bolt Vox bakes in four tuners and 500 GB of storage, works with digital cable systems or programming that is delivered over-the-air, and starts at $199.99. 

A beefier version of the Bolt Vox, only for use with digital cable systems, comes with 1 terabyte of storage and six tuners.

The TiVo Mini Vox, which works in tandem with the Bolt Vox and is tailored for whole-home set-ups, fetches $179.99.

Notably, existing TiVo Bolt, TiVo Roamio and first-gen TiVo Mini customers can upgrade to voice control by purchasing a separate TiVo Vox Remote. The Vox Remote for BOLT (in black or white) sells for $39.99, while the Vox Remote for Roamio products (OTA, Pro and Plus) and the first-generation TiVo Mini is available only in black, includes a separate Bluetooth adapter, and is priced at $44.99.

RELATED: TiVo ‘Bolt’ Strikes With 4K, Ad-Skipper

TiVo said its new suite of Vox-powered products will become available on October 29 at TiVo’s web site, Amazon.com, and at Best Buy stores nationwide.

Looking to bring more simplicity to a DVR that captures over-the-air TV signals and is targeted at cord-cutters, Nuvyyo has added integrated video storage with the launch of a new product called the Tablo Dual.

About 20% smaller than its predecessor, the Tablo Dual integrates two tuners and bakes in 64 gigabytes of onboard DVR storage, about enough to hold about 50 hours of HD programming.

The earlier-generation Tablo doesn’t have onboard storage, but does let users add storage by attaching a USB-connected storage device. Tablo Dual users also have the option to add storage (up to eight terabytes) using a separate storage.

Grant Hall, CEO of Nuvyyo, said onboard storage with the Tablo Dual will reduce friction and reduce the total cost of ownership for consumers.

The Tablo Dual, available in the U.S. on June 4, carries an MSRP of $249.99. It’ll be available at select Best Buy stores and Best Buy’s web site. Nuvyyo is also selling it direct via its site to consumers in Canada for C$329.99. 

The previous-generation two-tuner Tablo DVR sells for $219.99, and a four-tuner version fetches almost $300. Hall said most Tablo users implement attached storage.

The Tablo Dual also includes a 30-day free trial to an optional TV guide data subscription that regularly sells for $4.99 per month, $49.99 annually, or for $149.99 for a lifetime subscription.

Hall said there’s a “very high take rate” on the optional subscription, noting that the price also includes remote access features and 14 days of guide data.

Hall said a two-tuner version helped to get the Tablo Dual to an “accessible price point,” and allowed that a four-tuner version would be the next logical step, though the company has yet to announce what’s coming after the Tablo Dual.

Most Tablo users are cord-cutters that connect the device to a TV antenna to receive the local over-the-air broadcast channels. The device captures those signals and sends them wirelessly to other devices on the home network. Tablo today supports Roku player, Xbox and Nvidia Shield consoles, Apple TV boxes, Chromecast streaming adapters, Amazon Fire TV devices, web browsers, smart TVs from LG (WebOS 2.0 and 3.0), and iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

“We’re really just another app,” Hall said.

RELATED: Tablo Launches Apple TV App

That approach differs than some other vendors that also have built OTA-OTT combination products tailored for cord-cutters, such as the TiVo with the Roamio OTA, Dish Network’s AirTV Player and Adapter, and Channel Master’s subscription-free DVR+. TiVo has been working on the “Mavrik,” an OTA device that will work with a cloud DVR, but ZatzNotFunny reported this week that TiVo has scrapped plans to launch it and weighing the future of its larger retail product strategy. 

RELATED: AirTV Firmware Update Stitches Over-the-Air Channels to Guide

At CES in January, the company introduced the Tablo DROID, a software version of a Tablo DVR that initially runs on the Android TV-powered Nvidia Shield. That product is in beta now and is expected to ship soon, Hall said, adding that the product will also support other Android TV devices.

Ottawa, Canada-based Nuvyyo has not announced shipment numbers for its Tablo products, but the privately held company announced last month that it had achieved a three-year growth rate of 288%.

Offering more proof that the way consumers get their video fix is changing, a new study from Leichtman Research Group found that 82% of U.S. TV homes have a DVR, get Netflix, or use VOD from a cable or telco provider.

About 30% of those homes use two of those services, and 14% use all three, according to the study, On-Demand TV XV, LRG’s 15th annual survey on the topic.

The study, based on a survey of 1,211 U.S. households, found that 54% of adults have Netflix in their home, and 53% have a DVR, making it the first time that homes with Netflix (a total that includes those that use shared passwords) have surpassed those with a DVR. By comparison, 44% of TV homes had a DVR, versus 28% with Netflix when LRG conducted the study in 2011.

Among other findings, the survey found that 64% of homes get an SVOD service from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and/or Hulu, and 51% of adults stream any of those services on a monthly basis, and that 23% of all adults stream Netflix daily, compared to 6% in 2011.

And though OTT video is increasingly popular, 58% of all cable subs used VOD in the past month, up from 42% in 2011, and 65% of all cable and telco video subs have used VOD from their current provider, the survey found.

“On-Demand and time shifting TV services like DVR, VOD and Netflix have permanently changed the way that people can watch TV,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst at LRG, said in a statement. “Today, over 50% of households have a DVR and, for the first time in the fifteen years of this study, over half of households have Netflix. Yet traditional TV viewing still exists.  For example, 46% of adults agree that they often flip through channels to see what’s on TV.”

As part of the celebration of its second year of existence, Sling TV is offering a free preview of the service to new customers this weekend, tied in with the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead on Feb. 12.

In a periscope event for SingTV’s second birthday, CEO Roger Lynch said the free preview – available on www.SlingTV.com/watchfree -- will also allow TWD fans to access AMC Network’s marathon of the zombie series, a big hit with Sling TV customers.

Lynch added that during this month (February) Sling TV will offer free previews of premium channels Home Box Office and Starz at different parts of the month. In addition, he added that digital video recorder capability will be available via Amazon Fire, Android Mobile and Android TV “very soon.” Following those launches, DVR capability will extend to Apple TV at a future date. Sling TV began beta testing DVR service via Roku in December

The vast majority of pay TV subs with DVRs – about 84.3% -- use them to record sports, a clear indication that live sports are not “DVR-proof,” a new survey from Thuuz Sports found.

The survey of more than 1,000 pay TV subs who are also sports fans conducted in partnership with Ring Digital, also found that 84% of those sports DVR users do so several times a month.

As for the reasons, 75% said they use the DVR as a backup when they can’t watch the game live, 58% use it as a backup when they might miss the start of a contest, and 58% like to skip ads. It’s the latter use-case that Thuuz believes opens the door to a premium-ad-free highlights product.

The study, they said, showed that 70.1% of sports fans would be “extremely” or “very” interested in the concept of a service that automatically curates and personalizes highlights from recently recorded games, and that they would expect to pay an average of $11.74 per month for such a service. About 65% said they would expect to pay more than $10 per month.

Thuuz, of course, is enthused about these findings because they fit well with a product set that uses metadata and algorithms to keep viewers apprised of live games, ranking them based on their excitement level. In mid-2015, the company began to talk up a new app called Thuuz Highlights that adds more personalization to the mix by enabling fans to build highlight reels based on games recorded on a set-top DVR, in a pay TV provider’s VOD library, or stored in the cloud for streaming.

RELATED: Thuuz Pitches Personalized TV(subscription required)

Thuuz’s announced partners include Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Charter Communications, Dish Network, Liberty Global, TiVo and ThinkAnalytics, among others. Of that group, Comcast has testing a DVR In-Game Highlights feature that lets viewers jump to big plays in recorded football and soccer matches (Update: Comcast did not employ Thuuz technology for that DVR test). 

“Thuuz is all about enhancing fan experiences for games and highlights through metadata indicating the best moment to tune-in, which can also be extended to automatically assemble personalized playlists for each subscriber,” Warren Packard, CEO of Thuuz Sports, said in a statement. “These survey results strengthen our commitment to personalized, real-time sports video highlights as a growth strategy for TV operators, sports networks, leagues and teams.”

“Sports are best viewed live, but this survey highlights the fact that most fans with DVRs regularly use them to customize their sports viewing in a near-live fashion, added Brian Ring, principal of Ring Digital. “Indeed, our dataset provides strong evidence that a multi-billion-dollar opportunity exists for TV providers and sports networks to super-serve this user behavior, creating a better TV bundle.”

Ericsson said it has notched a two-year deal with Liberty Global properties in Latin America to expand the MSO’s DVR services with Catch-Up TV and Restart TV capabilities.

Ericsson, which will enable that with its video storage and processing platform, said the deal involves VTR in Chile and Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico, operators that are part of the Liberty Global’s LiLAC Group.

"We are looking forward to supporting LiLAC Group in delivering ever-improving content, quality and features that delight TV consumers and meet their unique and ever-changing needs. With our solution we are addressing all customer segments with unique configurations, while providing LiLAC Group with the ability to future-proof and grow as they see necessary,” Adrian Gioia, Head of TV & Media, Ericsson Latin America and Caribbean, said in a statement.

Ericsson has been building out its cloud DVR and cloud video capabilities through acquisitions such as Fabrix Systems in 2014, and Envivio in 2015. Ericsson, which closed its acquisition of Microsoft's Mediaroom business in the fall of 2013, has also been pushing ahead with MediaFirst, a cloud-powered, multiscreen platform for MVPDs and OTT providers. 

Rovi’s acquisition of TiVo went through without a hitch last week, but now comes the hard part — integrating and shaping the new company and its product lines, and determining its long-term retail strategy.

Many of those questions are still to be answered as the new company, which is keeping the TiVo name and giving the Rovi brand the boot, starts to act on a plan expected to generate $100 million in synergies.

“The near term for us is really about pulling the two companies together and trying to get them humming as best we can,” Tom Carson, president and CEO of the new TiVo, said last Wednesday (Sept. 7), the day the $1.1 billion deal was closed.

“We’ll go through each of the product lines — everything from traditional set-top box guides to Internetconnected guides to search [and] recommendations technologies, all of the [areas] where you have overlap, and figure out what is best-of-breed and how do you want to optimize all of those solutions,” Carson said. “No decisions have been made on any of the product lines.”

Also to be decided is the future trajectory of TiVo’s retail strategy. TiVo was apparently still pushing ahead in that area before the deal was wrapped up — Federal Communications Commission documents show that TiVo is developing “Mantis,” a network DVR product with integrated over-the-air TV capabilities that is seemingly targeted to cord-cutters.

“The consumer business is something that is still of interest to us,” Carson said. “Having product in consumers’ homes is beneficial on the product development side and can help us with the products we develop for service providers.”

But Carson said the trend with service providers — to offer hardware-agnostic software, apps and interfaces — is an angle TiVo will also consider for its retail business. If there are questions about how to go forward, “it’s about what’s the right hardware strategy for the consumer business,” he said.

Subscription video on demand services like Netflix and Hulu for the first time have matched penetration levels for DVR’s in U.S.TV households, according to the latest Nielsen Total Audience Report.

Nielsen’s first quarter 2016 report stated that both SVOD services and DVR reached the 50% penetration mark, the first time SVOD services have caught up with DVR numbers. Yet the increase of SVOD penetration hasn’t completely cannibalized DVR penetration – close to 30% of homes have both a DVR and access to at least one SVOD services, up nearly 20% from last year, according to Nielsen. 

Overall, total media consumption during 1Q 2016 has increased by one hour of overall time spent being consumed per day over different devices and platforms compared to the prior year, said Nielsen. On the flip side, the amount of live TV viewing declined, but not nearly as rapidly as in previous years. Viewers watched about 3 minutes less live TV during the first quarter 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, which was less than the decline of 16 minutes experienced in 2015 and 2016, according to Nielsen.

Comcast has released another batch of additions and enhancements for X1, its next-gen video platform, led off by the commercial rollout of a feature that was previously being tested through its Labs section.

The X1 “Remind” feature is now featured on the action bar for all program listings. “Once activated, an X1 notification will appear reminding you it’s time to tune in. Users who previously enabled Reminders via Labs will continue to have access to this feature, and is now available to everyone,” Peter Nush, Comcast Cable’s VP of product management, explained in this blog post.

Comcast has also added a notification for Auto Extend, a feature that ensures that live events  recorded to the DVR will be automatically extended if, for example, a sporting event goes into overtime.  The new notification now shows up when the viewer is playing back the recording. Comcast introduced Auto Extend for X1 in August 2015.

X1 now also supports a “self-healing” response system  that enters play when the playback of a completed DVR recording somehow fails.  In those situations, the system will provide the customer with all available alternatives for viewing the program.

“The DVR will first immediately retry the playback,” Nush explained. “If the retry fails, X1 will begin playback of the free/entitled version of the program On Demand, where available. If there is not an On Demand version of your recording, X1 may also prompt you to record the next airing of the program.”

Additionally X1 has enhanced its Music experience with better discoverability and easier playback. Among them, Comcast has rearranged the options on the Music Artist pages to pull up the most relevant features and content to customers, a move that reduces the number of clicks to playback. Comcast has also moved the Shuffle feature for Music to the first to the first option on the action menu.

Along with its Q1 results, Comcastsaid that nearly 35% of its 22.4 million video subs are now on X1. The MSO is aiming to raise that to about 50% by the end of this year.

Content providers take heed – according to TV measurement stalwart Nielsen, the proliferation of digital video recorders, video on demand and digital content have pushed traditional viewing habits out the window, with some shows attracting their biggest gains in audience well beyond the traditional seven-days after original air.

In advertising circles, the Live-plus-7-day (L7) rating period is becoming increasingly irrelevant as viewers watch content on a variety of devices at different times.

In a press briefing Tuesday, Nielsen senior vice president of audience insights Glenn Enoch unveiled research from the measurement company’s clients as part of its Total Audience Measurement initiative showing viewership can rise after the L7 window between from 4% to 58% depending on the genre of programming. Enoch said that in the small sample of programming, reality/competition shows fared the worst with 18-49 year-olds in extending viewing, with only a 4% audience gain beyond seven days. The biggest increase came from animated comedy shows, where 58% of the audience lift came between day eight and day 118.

READ MORE: Nielsen dismisses "noise" about total audience delays.

Enoch said that by far the majority of viewing came in the first week after original air – as much as 88% for reality shows. But as viewing habits change, viewers – especially younger viewers – are time-shifting more often and for longer periods of time.

VOD is the primary driver for the extended viewing period, Enoch said. DVR usage drops dramatically after the seventh day after original air, while VOD usage has its greatest lift period after seven days.

VOD watchers are also more engaged: they watch an average of 30 minutes while those who view live TV watch an average of 15 minutes, according to Nielsen.

Nielsen began making its Total Audience Measurement products available to a select number of clients in January, who have been evaluating the data.

Senior vice president of product leadership Kelly Abcarian said Nielsen’s total audience offering will be more widely available in the third quarter of this year.

“This enables them to understand how that audience builds across time,” Abcarian said. “So the networks and the broadcasters and the content owners can have more firepower to talk about how their audience looks across time so they can better positon and plan and sell that out to advertisers. Secondly, the advertisers want to access younger audiences, they want access to more available inventory. That’s what this data set enables them to understand across both the buy and sell side.”

READ MORE: Five ways to prepare for the audience measurement revolution.

One thing that content providers can take from the data is that it may behoove them to make full current seasons of their shows available on demand to distributors to take full advantage of viewership trends.

Abcarian said that while some of the content showed no VOD viewing at all, that wasn’t because viewers didn’t want to watch the show on demand, but that it wasn’t available on demand.

“I think this data will give them much better insights around how to make the content available but even more importantly how to monetize that content with the advertisers,” Abcarian said.  

Nielsen has been conducting client advisory boards, where companies who have been evaluating the data meet regularly to talk about their findings and new uses for the data. Jessica Hogue, also a senior vice present of product leadership at Nielsen, said the level of cooperation has been encouraging.

“We’re really quite pleased with the level of engagement we have across all aspects of our program,” Hogue said. “We have many clients that are ready for evaluation and are starting to look at that data already today. We continue to grow our pipeline of clients that are integrating for VOD and digital measurement across the board. We think that will continue to grow because our clients are continuing to evolve the way they distribute their content.”

TiVo confirmed that it has moved ahead with a pricing adjustment on the Bolt, the 4K-capable, broadband-connected DVR that TiVo introduced last fall.

As spotted by ZatzNotFunny over the weekend, TiVo, starting today (May 2), has cut $100 off the base price of the Bolt and dropped the year of service that was baked into the price when the product was launched last year. 

Under the new pricing, the Bolt with 500 gigabytes of storage sells for $199.99 (versus the original $299.99, while the 1 terabyte version now fetches $299.99, down from $399.99.

New pricing is being updated on the TiVo site as well as through other sales channels throughout the day, said TiVo, which last week inked a $1.1 billion deal to be acquired by Rovi.

TiVo noted that it evolves pricing options as it receives customer input and to meet customer demands. Of recent note, TiVo launched a new version of the Roamio OTA that features more storage and also eliminates the monthly subscription fee.

Tech blogger Dave Zatz, meanwhile, sees the pricing change as a way for TiVo to reduce potential customer churn after the first year following the purchase, though the price will actually be higher for the product if monthly an annual pricing remains $14.99 per month or $149.99 per year. (Multichannel News will update the story once service pricing for the TiVo Bolt is confirmed).

TiVo recently announced that its subscriber base had passed the 7 million mark. The company ended its fiscal Q4 with 6.8 million subs – 5.47 million via MSO partnerships and 971,000 that are retail/“TiVo-owned.”

Comcast DVR or TiVo — which is a tech-savvy Secretary of State to choose so she won’t miss one of her favorite TV shows?

Or maybe she could just “tape a DVD.”

Secretary (and likely Democratic presidential nominee) Hillary Clinton has already revealed she is a fan of the recently- concluded PBS period drama Downton Abbey. But how big a fan? Inquiring Wire minds wanted to know.

In our quest, we mined the WikiLeaks data dump of (unclassified) emails from her server —WikiLeaks got the emails via a Freedom of Information Act request and made them available in a searchable online database. And now we know.

“I’m addicted to Downton Abbey which runs on Sunday night and reruns on Thursday at 8 p.m.,” Clinton emailed an associate in early January 2012. “Since I missed it Sunday and will again tomorrow, so [I] was wondering if you could tape a DVD for me or see if I can get TiVo on my TV at home. I asked Marina to look into TiVo but don’t know what she found out.”

Response: “Yes! A lot of people have been talking about that show and I keep missing it as well. Will work with Marina on the TiVo/DVR. If we can’t get it by tomorrow, we’ll make sure to tape it for you.”

Clinton: “Is a DVR the same as TiVo?”

Response: “Yes the DVR does the same thing as a TiVo. The menus will look different. If you don’t like the Comcast DVR, we can always switch out for a TiVo instead.”

No word on whether Comcast or TiVo won out.

— John Eggerton

‘Wild’ Time on Embassy Row

NatGeo Wild vice president and general manager Geoff Daniels joined with Aussie Matt Wright, star of The Outback Wrangler, to launch the second season of the wildlife series with a reception at the Washington, D.C., residence of Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey. [Bundaberg makes great ginger beer, btw.]

The Wire was there and chatted up the ambassador, who diplomatically sidestepped comment on the current political climate, though another attendee from Down Under was hoping this was not the kind of democracy the U.S. was exporting abroad. Ouch, mate!

As for the evening’s focus — the wrangler of potentially deadly crocs — Daniels said the show’s mission was to encourage respect for the planet and all the animals on it. He suggested the killers, like crocs, arguably needed champions more than the cuddly critters.

Daniels called the series “ripping great TV,” though “ripping” is clearly something Wright tries to avoid.

Ambassador Hockey pointed out that he had brought a cat from home to the United States— he just took over the post in January — noting that it was the one that had not been eaten by a python. Double ouch, your excellency!

— John Eggerton

All Nations Network Seeks Native Niche on U.S. TV Lineups

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network launched in Canada 16 years ago on pay TV systems via a government mandate. Many tagged it as a social experiment, APTN chief operating officer Sky Bridges says. Now, top shows on the network such as reservation drama Blackstone and reality series Mohawk Girls win prizes at festivals including the Alberta Film and Television Awards.

Bridges and company hope that a U.S. version, dubbed All Nations Network, will find a place on pay TV lineups this year based on that track record (300-plus awards overall) and factors including heightened interest in native peoples (think of Leonardo DiCaprio’s “First Nations” shout-out at the Golden Globes) and in themes like regenerating the earth.

“There are over 200 television channels in the U.S. that fall into the multicultural programming arena, and not one is native,” Bridges told The Wire. “We feel that the large native friendly audience in the U.S. has real growth potential, as witnessed by our ratings success in Canada with not only native but non-native viewers.” Some 89% of the Canadian channel’s viewing audience is non-native, APTN says.

Bridges and Castalia Communications SVP Bob Watson, handling the distribution side, have been pitching ANN to U.S. distributors as a 24-hour network with news, sports and kids’ fare in addition to the primetime originals, with more meetings planned at INTX. So far, distributors have said it’s “unique” and “worthwhile,” Watson said.

The initial U.S. target audience is 5.2 million Native Americans, per the census, and 11 million who claim native ancestry, Bridges said.

— Kent Gibbons

Magnavox, not exactly a brand that screams bleeding-edge, came out of CES looking to get an edge on the cord-cutting trend with a set of subscription-free DVRs that could put some pressure on Channel Master, as well as subscription-based offerings from TiVo.

Magnavox announced three models last week:

-MDR877H/F7 for $399.99 (two tuners, 1 terabyte of storage, and DVD player/recorder)

-TB560HP/F7 $449.99 (two tuners, 1 TB of storage)

-TB560HS/F7 $499.99 (six tuners, 2 TB of storage). Photo of the unit, via CNET, is pictured above.

While the model names could use some punching up from Magnavox’s marketing folks, all three are due out in the fourth quarter of 2016 and will allow for more storage using external USB-connected hard drives.

While all three will include support for over-the-air TV and access to subscription-free access to the underlying EPG (from Rovi), they will also function as “full-featured media servers,” which means it can stream content securely to other devices on the home network.

Magnavox’s lineup also supports something called “DVR sync,” which lets users consolidate all recordings on the menu in multi-room set-ups.

Per CNET, Magnavox’s offering will support home-side streaming to iOS and Android devices, but the demo did not show integration with other streaming services, such as Netflix.

The other news of significance last week on the subscription-free DVR front came way of Channel Master, which has added Sling TV to its repertoire of integrated OTT apps. Magnavox’s new lineup might provide for another device target for Sling TV to pursue.

Hitting a self-imposed deadline to have it rolled out to all FiOS TV subs by mid-December, Verizon said it has completed an update to its FiOS Mobile App for iOS and Android devices that lets customers access DVR-recorded shows and movies while they’re away from home.

Per Verizon, customers with both FiOS Quantum TV service and FiOS Internet service can stream “nearly all” of their DVR-recorded shows from outside the home anywhere they have a broadband connection.

Additionally, the new software update lets FiOS customers watch their full live TV lineup via the app when they are connected to the home network – something that  Comcast currently provides to X1 subs via its Xfinity TV app for smartphones and tablets and Web browsers. Comcast also offers a cloud DVR that provides out-of-home streaming access to recorded shows and a download option. Cablevision Systems’ network DVR, which lets customers record up to 15 shows at once, is currently limited to the set-top box.

Verizon, which enables subs to record up to 12 shows at once by combining the functions of  two six-tuner Arris-made Verizon Media Servers, began to make the new FiOS Mobile app features available in several FiOS markets, including Philadelphia, last month. At the time, the company said it expected to complete the rollout by mid-December.

"The latest innovations of the Fios Mobile app are how today's consumers want to watch TV and view content," said Susan Retta, vice president of consumer marketing, Verizon, in a statement. "These new features allow our customers to take their home Fios TV experience with them and to enjoy it whenever and wherever they go."

TiVo’s MSO business stayed hot in the company’s third fiscal quarter with 418,000 net adds, pushing its MVPD-partnership category beyond 5.51 million subs.

TiVo, which is expanding to pay TV operators in emerging markets via its recent acquisition of middleware vendor Cubiware, said its MSO partnership business in the quarter experienced its strongest growth in 10 years.

While TiVo has seen the bulk of its MSO-oriented growth come from international partners, the company said its business with North  American MVPDs grew 44% across more than 15 mid-sized operators. Digitalsmiths, TiVo’s search and recommendation and analytics unit that counts Charter, Time Warner Cable and Dish Network as customers, also posted double-digit growth, TiVo said. 

“We’re gaining about a million subs every nine months,” TiVo president and CEO Tom  Rogers said in an interview. He said MSO-related revenues in Q3 grew 60% year-on-year, and 47% on a sequential basis. 

Amid the recent launch of the 4K-capable, ad-skipping TiVo Bolt, the company also added 11,000 TiVo-owned subs, expanding that total to 952,000.

Amid the recent launch of the 4K-capable, ad-skipping TiVo Bolt DVR, the company also added 11,000 TiVo-owned subs, expanding that total to 952,000.  Rogers noted that Q3 only included a week to ten days of Bolt sales.

With the MSO and retail categories factored in, TiVo added 429,000 subs in Q3, for a grand total of 6.46 million. 

With both categories factored in, TiVo added 429,000 subs, for a grand total of 6.46 million, up 26% versus the year-ago period. 

On the financial end, TiVo said Q3 service and software and technology revenues hit a record $102.8 million, up 17% versus the year-ago quarter, and near the top of its expected range of $100 million to $103 million.

GAAP Net Income was $5.3 million.  Non-GAAP net Income grew 39%, to $9.9 million, a figure that excluded $1.9 million relating to amortization & earn-outs from Cubiware, $1.9 million of interest expense on the 2021 convertible notes, and $0.9 million loss on the repurchase of 2016 convertible notes, all net of tax. 

"This was a strong quarter of execution and growth,” Rogers, who is stepping down from that role to become non-executive chairman in February 2016, said in a statement. He added that “the turnaround in the TiVo-Owned business continues as we launched the innovative TiVo BOLT and gross additions were up 44% year-over-year, our ninth straight quarter of double-digit growth.”

Dave Zatz sends word via his ZatzNotFunny blog that Verizon FiOS TV is starting to introduce a “DVR Anywhere” feature as part of its IMG software 3.0 upgrade.

According to the release notes floating about, DVR Anywhere will allow FiOS TV subs to access their recordings on Internet-connected mobile devices. Additionally, the software update enables in-home streaming of the full live TV lineup on the FiOS Mobile app.

Those features put FiOS TV closer in line with options offered by Comcast’s X1 platform, which allows for in-home streaming of the full TV l lineup and, in several markets, access to a Cloud DVR that lets users stream recorded shows in or out of the home, or download the recording to a mobile device for offline viewing. TiVo, of course, offers similar features on its platform.

In Verizon’s case “you’ll seemingly need both FiOS TV set-box and router hardware in the mix… as the Quantum DVR becomes a video gateway,” Zatz noted pointing out that the update allows for FiOS TV subs to stream the entire channel lineup in the home via the mobile app, versus a smaller subset.

It’s not yet clear if Verizon has rolled out the software update to all eligible customers (we’ve asked Verizon for additional details, but the telco has remained mum so far). However, a customer in New York claims on the DSL Reports message board that the 3.0 release is out in Syracuse and Buffalo.

Other evidence indicates Harrisburg and Philadelphia received the update recently, and FiOS TV systems in line to get it in the coming weeks include Queens, N.Y.; Maryland; New Jersey; Pittsburgh; Texas; Florida and California.

We’ll update this post as more details are known.

Update:  Per a Verizon spokesman, the company expects to complete the rollout of these new features to all FiOS TV markets by around mid-December. The new features will be available to customers who have FiOS Quantum TV and download the FiOS Mobile App. 

Meanwhile, on the product front, Verizon has been hitching its whole-home TV wagon to an Arris-made Verizon Media Server that packs six tuners and 1 terabyte of DVR storage, as well as a new souped-up broadband gateway with on-board 802.11ac WiFi and MoCA 2.0.

Channel Master, a maker of subscription-free DVRs targeted to cord-cutters, said it has completed the beta phase of its live TV streaming platform, and has opened it up to media companies.

Channel Master, which supports OTT video and free over-the-air TV on its DVR+ platform and integrated interface, initially offered a batch of about 20 live OTT services as part of its beta program, including WeatherNation, FoodyTV, The Outdoor Cooking Channel and RT News, and has since added partners spanning Vibrant TV, Backlight, StreamShift, SonLife, Inspiration and Dr. TV.  

Channel Master has also shown demos of Sling TV running on its platform, but has yet to formally integrate the Dish Network-run OTT-TV service.

The company said media companies can contact it directly (at content@channelmaster.com) to schedule demos. It claims its partners can build and launch a branded channel on its platform for free, including no upfront costs.  

Rather than taking a discrete apps approach with OTT that would require users to change inputs, the Channel Master TV system aims to be more tightly integrated by including OTT offerings and broadcast channels in the underlying program guide.

Channel Master currently offers two DVR+ products – a 16 GB version for $249 (that requires a USB external hard drive for “full DVR functionality”), and a 1 terabyte model for $399.  The company has not announced how many DVR+ units it has sold.

 “We initially launched with a handful of select partners.” said Joe Bingochea, executive vice president of product development, in a statement. “The service was a first-of-its-kind and we wanted to be sure we had a premium product that delivered value to both partners and customers. The results have been fantastic and we’re now ready to expand the service with additional partners.”

TiVo will look to amp up retail sales with the Bolt, a new platform that supports 4K streaming, a menu of OTT apps, traditional digital cable video services, and a new “SkipMode" feature that could become a lightning rod of controversy with programmers.

As shown at left, the Bolt sports a new, smaller and arc-like form-factor, but will kick things off with two differently priced models – the 500 Gigabyte version will cost $299.99, while the 1 terabyte model will fetch $399.99. Bolt pricing bakes in the first year of the TiVo service, which will later cost subs 14.99 per month or $149 annually. TiVo and its online retail partners will start taking orders today (fulfillments begin next week), and the Bolt will show up at Best Buy brick and mortar stores starting this Sunday.

Bolt will also contain a CableCARD slot (it’s located on the device’s undercarriage) and, for the cord-cutting crowed, will also allow users to capture free, over-the-air TV broadcast signals. The Bolt is also outfitted with MoCA 2.0 for whole-home capabilities when paired with the $149.99 (non-4K) TiVo Mini, and 802.11ac dual-band WiFi.

Bolt’s 4K support will come way of HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2 and the HEVC and VP9 decode formats, and will initially support 4K via Netflix and YouTube.

"I do expect to add more 4K apps as time goes along; we're working on our application partners on that,” Jim Denney, TiVo’s vice president of product management and strategy, said.

Equipped with four tuners, the Bolt also includes on-board video transcoding for streaming of recorded and live TV to Android and iOS devices and Web browsers. Bolt will support one simultaneous stream at launch, though a November software release will unleash a second. The Bolt will add out-of-home streaming early next year, Denney said.

Replaces the Roamio-S

The TiVo Bolt will essentially replace the Roamio-S, which requires the TiVo Stream sidecar for video transcoding, and “likely replaces” the Roamio Plus in the company’s product line, Denney said. Like the  Roamio-S, TiVo also expects to eventually phase out the CableCARD-free Roamio OTA (the Bolt handles OTA signals).

Updated: However, earlier findings tied to TiVo's new platform suggested that TiVo is also developing an "Aereo Edition" of Bolt, suggesting that TiVo might come out with a model that, like the Roamio OTA, supports OTT and over-the-air TV, but eschews the CableCARD. TiVo acquired the trademarks and the customer lists of the now-defunct Aereo service for about $1 million in March

The Roamio Pro, which doesn’t support 4K but packs six tuners and 3 TB of storage, will remain in the TiVo product lineup.  “We’ll split the line,” Denney said. (The 1.9-pound Bolt is 33% smaller than the TiVo Roamio-S and 65% than the Roamio Plus and Pro).

Bolt will start out as a retail product (the device will provide integration with Cox and Comcast VOD), but “you should expect MSO-specific versions of this coming out,” Denney said.

TiVoended its fiscal Q2 with 6.03 million total subs (941,000 TiVo-owned, and 5.09 million through MSO partners).

SkipMode

One feature new to Bolt that should gain lots of positive attention from consumers and possibly negative attention from programmers is SkipMode.

TiVo said the feature, which lets users skip commercial breaks in recorded shows with the click of a button, will initially be supported on 20 popular channels, including the Big 4 broadcasters, for shows (save for local content and sporting events) that run each day between 4 p.m. and midnight.

Channels that are part of that mix include FX, HGTV, History, Lifetime, NBC, ABC, ABC Family, AMC, Bravo, CBS, Syfy, TBS, TLC, TNT, USA, Comedy Central, the CW, Discovery Channel, Food Network and Fox.

To enable the feature, TiVo is creating tags on those channels that identify when programming begins or resumes. Commercial pods will be illustrated on-screen with a bar along the recording line and a pop up will prompt the viewer to press the “D” button when a commercial break is skippable. Users can also select the remote’s Channel Up/Down buttons to skip forward or back between commercial breaks.

“From a consumer standpoint, we think it’ll be a very compelling feature,” Denney said. “To a certain extent, it’s fast-forward perfected.”

Time will tell if broadcasters and other programmers feel the same way, as Dish’s Auto Hop feature for the Hopper DVR drew lawsuits from broadcasters. However, in January, a U.S. District Court said the technology that the broadcast networks objected to is legal under copyright law or the Supreme Court’s recent Aereo ruling. Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's September 2013 denial of a preliminary injunction against Dish’s Hopper DVR service.

Denney said TiVo users are already fast-forwarding through commercials. “What we’re doing is giving them [consumers] a new tool to do what they’re already doing…We’re not affecting any of the underlying content; we're creating the tags to identify where the content begins." 

Other New Features

Thanks in part to a beefier memory footprint, Bolt will support a fast app launch feature for Netflix. While it will take five to seven seconds to fire up Netflix on Bolt the first time, the suspend/resume capability with the Netflix app will reduce that to a second or two, giving it the kind of response time offered by a resident application. That feature is initially Netflix-specific, though TiVo hopes to support it in additional apps eventually. 

With Bolt,  TiVo is also rolling out a freshen up user interface that flattens the graphics, a new color palette, and network logos that will  help users more rapidly identify channels in the lineup. “It’s the TiVo UI with new graphics,” Denney said.

A new QuickMode will playback content at 1.3 times real time with pitch-corrected audio (that will make sure that dialogue played back in that mode won’t sound like Alvin and The Chipmunks).

TiVo is also debuting a new iOS app that will allow users bring more personalization and customization to its What to Watch Now element. While the hobbies and interest feature is only for the YouTube app, customers can now customize by genre across other content sources. The app is also expanding its sharing capability beyond Facebook and Twitter to include email, and links that will also direct users to OTT sources in addition to a portal where they can set a recording.

TiVo is also bringing more speed to its cross-platform (streaming, VOD and recording) OnePass with a feature called Quick Select.

And TiVo’s introducing a new remote that includes RF technology (eliminating the need for line-of-sight).  To help users find a lost remote, a button on the back of the Bolt will trigger the remote to play a song.

Alongside the new features, there’s also something that the new Bolt won’t support early on – the Hulu app.

Denney said that’s because TiVo flipped to an HTML5 app structure. Hulu’s HTML5 app isn’t ready for that platform, but TiVo, he said, hopes to bring Hulu to the Bolt “sometime soon.” 

Ahead of the fall TV season, Bright House is broadening its DVR platform with a new whole-home system called “Voyager” that can record six shows at once.

The MSO said the offering combined the recording capabilities of its “Enhanced” DVR with a whole-home system that can connect to seven additional cable boxes in the house. Subs can manage the DVR remotely via the BHTV app for iOS and  Android devices.

Pricing on the Voyager whole-home option and its suppliers were not immediately available (it does look similar to this Samsung-made model). According to a web page dedicated to the product, its Enhanced DVR allows users to store up to 150 hours of HD video. Time Warner Cable markets a similar six-tuner/1 Terabyte “enhanced” DVR made by Arris (the DCX 3600)  that it’s rolling out as part of its TWC Maxx upgrades.

Bright House, which serves 2.5 million subs in parts of Florida, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan and  California, is in the process of being acquired by Charter Communications. Charter, which is also trying to buy Time Warner Cable, is expected to extend its Worldbox/Spectrum Guide product strategy to the acquired properties.

Comcast has introduced another batch of updates and enhancements for its IP-capable X1 platform, led by a feature that automatically extends the recordings of baseball games and other supported live events.

The new “Auto Extend” option, which takes effect when it’s determined that an event will air past its scheduled airtime, will automatically extend DVR recordings in 30-minute increments to ensure that the customer is able capture the entire event.

The option comes into play only on programming that supports the Auto Extend feature. “Starting out, the feature will be available on major sporting events including NFL Football, MLB Baseball, NBA Basketball, soccer, NHL Hockey as well as NCAA Men’s Football and Basketball, and NASCAR, and we’ll be rolling it out to a wider range of events over time,” Peter Nush, Comcast Cable’s VP, product management, explained in this blog post, noting that X1 subs can also extend the recording of any content manually via the program’s info page.

Comcast, Nush write, is also testing a “Play by Play” DVR feature that lets users jump to important highlighted plays in recorded sporting events, making it “easy to catch up on the game and the big plays you missed quickly.” Recordings supporting this feature, offered by Comcast Labs, will show an overlay screen instructing viewers to press the page up/page down buttons to jump between highlights.

Comcast Labs is also using X1 to test “Welcome Back,” which provides users with a brief update on shows that have been recently recorded to the DVR or are trending. For subs who activate the test, these updates appear when customers first press a key on the remote when they turn the TV on.

On the customer experience end, X1 has added a new row for troubleshooting in the Help section of the Settings menu. “There will now be an option to restart your device, an option for Remote Setup – which easily walks users through pairing their remote – and instructions for programming your remote to the TV and any audio devices,” Nush noted.  

Comcast unleashed these updates as the MSO continues to accelerate the rollout of X1, as it’s now deploying about 30,000 X1 boxes per day. Nearly one-third of Comcast’s triple-play customers are now on the MSO’s next-gen video platform.

Channel Master, maker of a subscription-free DVR for cord-cutters with on-board over-the-air TV capabilities, has launched Channel Master TV, a feature that integrates linear OTT streams with the platform’s underlying program guide.

Channel Master, which announced plans for the new linear OTT component in January, said the software update is now being rolled out to all DVR+ customers, enabling them to select and change streams instantly without having to launch separate applications.

In tandem with the launch of Channel Master TV, the company will sell its baseline DVR+ model for $199 ($50 off its regular price) for today only (June 8) from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. PT, alongside free shipping within the continental U.S. and a free HDMI cable. It’s top-of-the-line DVR+ model, which is equipped with 1 terabyte of storage, sells for $399.

Channel Master said it will add Internet channels to the Channel Master TV platform without the need for a software update, noting that customers will receive an email notification when a new channel is added. To help its users customize the experience, they can “hide” and “un-hide” which Internet channels appear on DVR+’s Channel Master TV interface.

Multichannel News has asked Channel Master for a list of OTT “channels” it’s offering at the get-go, but some that are featured in the above company-supplied screen-capture include WeatherNation TV, Biz TV, FoodyTV, and The Outdoor Cooking Channel.

Channel Master has also recently demonstrated Sling TV running on its platform (subscription required), but has not announced when it might make the new OTT-TV service from Dish Network available on DVR+ on a commercial basis.

“This platform is a game changer in an alternative TV solution,” Joe Bingochea, executive vice president of product development at Channel Master, said in a statement. “We’ve taken the app out of the OTT experience for streamed linear video. For people who are looking for a non-traditional TV service, Channel Master TV adds an entirely new dimension, combined with OTA, On Demand and DVR in a single guide with no fees.”

“We’re giving the customer what they want in a true zero-fee TV service. Everything they can get for free, including Antenna Channels, Internet Channels, Streaming Services, DVR and Program Guide, we’re providing with no contract and no subscription. And there’s a lot more to come,” added Coty Youtsey, Channel Master’s president and CEO, noting that in addition to mainstream content such as news channels, the company is also interested in providing “unique programming.” 

You can remove the “limited edition” label from TiVo’s recently introduced Roamio OTA DVR, a model that is targeted to cord-cutters and consumers who have never taken a traditional pay-TV package.

Following last fall’s debut of the model, TiVo announced Wednesday that it has rolled out the $49.99 model on a nationwide basis. Users of the broadband-connected Roamio OTA, a device that does not come with a slot for a CableCARD but does work with digital antennas and supports an array of OTT video, are also subject to a $14.99 per month service fee for the underpinning TiVo service.

The TiVo Roamio OTA is equipped with 500 Gigabytes of storage, four tuners, is compatible with the TiVo Stream video-transcoding sidecar, and also supports TiVo’s new OnePass feature.

TiVo didn’t say how many Roamio OTAs have been sold, but company CEO Tom Rogers toldMultichannel News in November that the device “seems to be selling pretty well.” The Roamio OTA is currently a retail-only product, but Rogers also said TiVo is in talks with cable operators about an MSO-optimized version that can be offered to their broadband-only customers.

"TiVo continually innovates to meet the shifting ways consumers want to access their TV content, and we recognized that sections of the market were underserved -- including those choosing OTA for TV and those looking for higher-end DVRs,” TiVo CMO Ira Bahr said, in a statement. That proved true with the demand for the TiVo Roamio OTA after our initial seeding in 400 Best Buy stores this past fall.

"While we are believers that the TiVo service with a cable subscription is the best TV experience out there, we recognize there are those without cable and satellite that have recording needs.”

Channel Master, whose subscription-free DVR+ platform also has cord-cutters in mind, announced this week that it will soon add a "LinearTV" feature that will itegrate live feeds from a variety of OTT content sources, including Bloomberg, Al-Jazzera America, WGN, and WeatherNation, among others. 

More than three quarters (76%) of U.S. homes have a DVR, subscribe to Netflix or use video-on-demand from a cable or telco provider, up from 70% last year, Leichtman Research Group found in its latest study. 

Additionally, 26% of homes use two of those services, and 11% use all three, LRG found in On-Demand TV 2014: A Nationwide Study on VOD and DVRs, its 13th annual study on the topic.

LRG’s study, based on a survey of more than 1,230 U.S. homes, also found that 62% of homes that take a pay-TV service also have a DVR, up 41% from five years ago, while just 1% of homes that don’t take pay-TV have a DVR. Additionally, more than half (55%) of homes with a DVR now have it on more than one TV set, versus 28% five years ago.

DVR adoption continues to skew toward higher income brackets, as 66% of homes with annual household incomes of more than $75,000 have one, compared to 33% among those with incomes of less than $30,000.

Netflix usage, meanwhile, is higher among consumers who don’t take a pay-TV service. According to LRG’s findings, 32% of pay-TV subs with Netflix use the popular OTT SVOD service daily, versus 53% among Netflix subs who don’t subscribe to a traditional pay-TV service.

LRG also found that 36% of pay-TV subs get Netflix, versus 48% of non-pay-TV subs. Additionally, 36% of Netflix subscribers stream video daily and 72% do so weekly – that’s up from 10% and 43%, respectively, in 2010, LRG said.

“While VOD and DVRs were relatively nascent when this series of studies began, they are now core components of pay-TV packages,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, said in a statement. “Along with Netflix and other over-the-top offerings, these on-Demand TV services have permanently changed the options of how people may choose to watch TV.”

Among other findings in LRG’s latest study:

- 25% of current non-DVR households previously had a DVR at home.

- 59% of all cable subscribers have ever used VOD, compared to 46% in 2009, and 10% in 2004.

- 63% of digital cable subscribers, and 58% of telco video subscribers, used VOD in the past month. 

Alticast said its engineering team developed “much of the critical software” for the X8, a Cisco Systems-made multi-room DVR for Canada’s Videotron that is capable of recording eight programs at the same time.

The X8 is a next-gen box for Videotron’s “illico” digital interactive TV offering serving more than 1.7 million Videotron subs.

According to data about the device, the X8’s 2 terabyte drive can record up to 230 hours of HD video and, from a multi-room standpoint, is compatible with two Cisco models (the 4642HD and 8642 HD PVR), and two Samsung models (6340 HD and Samsung 8340 HD PVR).

“Keeping our illico service at the cutting-edge of entertainment delivery is a strategic imperative, so we turned to Alticast to leverage their expertise in the industry to help us bring our new X8 set-top box to market quickly,” said Marie-Ginette Lepage, VP, marketing-content and broadcasting, for Videotron, in a statement. “Offering our subscribers the very best multi-screen TV experience with continued innovation is our goal, and our new X8 set-top is one of the keys to ensuring that we meet this goal.”

“This project not only demonstrates Videotron’s commitment to its subscribers, it demonstrates the capabilities of our engineers and their ability to solve operators’ most demanding software development needs,” added Alticast CTO John Carlucci.

Channel Master has added Pandora Internet Radio to DVR+, its subscription-less DVR product line that is targeted to so-called "cord-cutters."

DVR+ supports over-the-air digital TV antennas and delivers a small-but-growing batch of over-the-top apps via the product’s broadband connection. DVR+ also supports the Walmart-owned Vudu service, and Channel Master expects to add a couple more apps to the mix by mid-November, a spokeswoman said, noting that the company has been making attempts to get Netflix on board because customers are screaming for it, but no deal has been reached.

Channel Master also announced that purchases from the company’s online store that include DVR+ will now ship for free in the U.S.

Channel Master expanded its DVR product line in July with a $399 model that includes 1 terabyte of storage, complementing an original $249.99 model that holds 16 gigabytes but is expandable using an external USB-connected hard drive. Both contain two tuners and support a 14-day channel guide.

TiVo recently introduced a “limited edition” OTA model for cord-cutters that costs $49.99 and requires a subscription that runs $14.99 per month (with a one-year commitment). 

Simple.TV is also competing in this part of the market with a two-tuner DVR/video server that costs $199.99 and an optional subscription service. It recently added a feature that lets users share recordings with up to five friends.

It’s not Aereo, Syncbak or Dyle, but a new service being developed aims to deliver broadcast TV signals to tablets, with a nice kicker — an integrated DVR and a premiumlevel video-on-demand service that also rides the digital airwaves.

Tablet TV, a venture of Motive Television and Granite Broadcasting, is planning a fall launch of a service that leans on a separate device it calls a “T-Pod” to capture over-the-air TV signals, integrate DVR storage and obtain on-demand fare via datacasting, a technology that uses broadcast spectrum to deliver data. That means a traditional Internet connection won’t be required.

“We call, and consider, this the first complete television service for tablets,” Luc Tomasino, Tablet TV’s launch director, said.

Tablet TV is also looking to ride atop some trends that are flowing in its favor — a growing base of tablet users, the fact that the most popular shows come from broadcast TV and a continued surge of subscription VOD services like Netflix.

The T-Pod is a wireless dongle that transmits the signal to the tablet, which when paired with the Tablet TV app, presents the guide and bakes in social- media components and other features that will underpin the service. The device will come with 7 Gigabytes of storage and a slot for an SD card, but Tablet TV can also take advantage of the innate storage in the user’s tablet.

Tablet TV hasn’t announced any content deals for its subscription-VOD service, which it expects to sell for $7.99 to $8.99 per month, but said it’s in talks with major studios and content providers. “This is being done respecting the existing [VOD distribution] windows that are in place,” Tomasino said. “It will be accretive to all players.”

Some revenue will come from the sale of T-Pods (the company expects them to sell for less than $100 each), but the anticipated lifeblood of the business will fl ow from display advertising, ads inserted into VOD content, and transactional and subscription VOD revenue.

Tomasino said the plan is to launch Tablet TV to consumers sometime this fall. The company intends to sell the service via its website and via its relationships with affiliated broadcast partners, which will get a cut of the VOD advertising revenue and receive a fixed fee for promoting Tablet TV. The company does not plan to sell the service through such retailers as Best Buy and RadioShack.

The objective is to get off the ground in the top 10 U.S. markets. “We could launch without an affiliate [in a given market], but that’s not what we want,” Tomasino said.

“We’re going to be opportunistic,” added Jeffrey Reiss, a pay TV industry vet and advisor who is on the board of both Tablet TV and Motive Television.

Tablet TV is currently beta-testing the datacasting technology with KOFY, a Graniteowned station in San Francisco. It has also engaged Frank N. Magid Associates to conduct market research to help it get a fix on the consumer segments the Tablet TV proposition will most resonate with.

The 18-to-34 age group is Tablet TV’s likely target, Reiss said, noting that the company believes it will appeal to consumers who are on the go or want an additional outlet in the home. “But we’ll rely on the research to tell us,” he said.