Cable operators aren’t the only one taking a look at offering network DVR services, a new patent application by Verizon shows the company is working on a network DVR that would analyze a user’s viewing habits and store programs on the Verizon network that the user is most likely to watch. There’s no timeline on the device launch, and Verizon isn’t commenting on their plans. After an ugly legal feud with broadcasters, Cablevision was the [...]

While Google Fiber isn’t up and running for most of Kansas City, a few select “retail partners” are already up and running. Dave Greenbaum over at GigaOM has offered up a few impressions based on his time at one Googlefied cafe named the Mud Pie Vegan Bakery. The impressions are anything but scientific, offering some scattered download speed impressions over shared Wi-Fi and wired connections from a number of websites and speedtests the author claims [...]

Even the cable industry’s biggest supporters on Wall Street concede that endless cable TV rate hikes simply aren’t sustainable. We’ve noted repeatedly that while the folks at cable companies like to talk a lot about trying to lower the cost of TV services to protect their lower-income subscriber base, their actions usually indicate the exact opposite. While cable operators like to place all the blame on broadcasters, the reality is that both sides of the [...]

Broadcasters and some cable operators have been whining incessantly about Dish’s new ad skipping technology Hopper, filing a recent lawsuit claiming that skipping ads violates copyright. The major networks are claiming the technology is destroying the cable industry by giving consumers the ability to automate something they’re already doing anyway. Time Warner Cable, whose CEO also criticized Hopper, appears to be going in the other direction — and has filed a patent for technology that [...]

BO hasn’t exactly warmed to the broadband-driven Internet video revolution. Over the years they’ve been accused of poisoning copies of their TV shows available for download via BitTorrent, petitioned the FCC to make DVR recording of subscription video-on demand illegal, and even hinted at possibly suing Slingbox for allowing the re-transmission of their content. In early 2010 the company finally revealed their Internet video service HBO Go, but hid it behind a paywall, requiring that [...]

Comcast is busy working on technology that will deliver ads to DVR ad skippers. According to a new Comcast patent, users who fast forward or pause an existing ad would see another ad displayed in the center of their television screen. Those ads would also have a behavioral intelligence component, changing depending on the “historical choices made by the recipient whether to skip or watch previous alternate content.” Comcast hopes they could start a bit [...]

Sources at Comcast say the company is currently engaged in a very small trial of a network DVR in Boston, where fewer than a dozen people are testing a proof of concept for Comcast’s implementation of the technology. The service should be very similar to a network DVR platform deployed by Cablevision, which was delayed repeatedly due to lawsuits from an entertainment industry worried about loss of control and ad revenue. “They are going slow,” [...]

Verizon FiOS TV customers are being informed that they’ll face temporarily service disruptions as the company redesigns and updates the FiOS TV video-on-demand system. The updates come after Verizon was sued by a company named ActiveVideo for violating four patents related to DVR and video services. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia awarded ActiveVideo Networks $115 million, and informed Verizon that they had to revamp their video systems [...]

Last week Light Reading discovered some new info on Comcast’s latest IP-based set top. Code-named the X3, the new set top is an IP-based, HD client device that will support future Comcast pushes into the network DVR space (where most content is stored on Comcast servers remotely). The X3 isn’t expected to show up until late this year or early next, but the Wall Street Journal now reports that Comcast will soon start testing the [...]

While opponents of municipal broadband like to trot out a lot of idealism when they rail against community broadband, what they’re really doing is protecting un-competitive duopolies who charge an arm and a leg for sub-par service. Take for example Monticello, Minnesota, where customers under-served by local ISP Qwest for a decade decided to improve local connectivity with FTTH service. That deployment triggered local telco TDS Telecom to build their own fiber to the home [...]