The Final Curtain Falls On Aria

MegaZone — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:19:15 +0000

We learned back in February that things were not going well for Aria, EchoStar’s effort to produce a CableCARD DVR for the US market. CableOne, who have been trialing the system, was reported to have given up on it and had turned their attention toward TiVo instead. Well, that may have been the last straw as Multichannel News reports that EchoStar has terminated Aria completely:

With the change, the company said in a statement provided to Multichannel News, it will shift resources to support “EchoStar’s unique intellectual property and advanced content-delivery technologies.” The company owns Sling Media, developer of the Slingbox device, and acquired the adaptive bit-rate technology of Move Technologies last year for $45 million.
However, EchoStar said it “remains firmly committed to supplying advanced hardware, software, and system solutions to its global cable, satellite, and telecom customers outside of the U.S. cable set top box market.”
“EchoStar recognizes that the highly demanding and competitive nature of the U.S. set-top market is very cost-competitive,” the company said. “After considerable review of the market and EchoStar’s sales/product development efforts, EchoStar has concluded the U.S. cable market offers insufficient revenue return opportunities to the company and our investors.”

That’s good news for TiVo, as Aria had the potential to be a serious competitor, especially with small-to-medium MSOs, if EchoStar was able to execute. EchoStar certainly knows how to make DVRs; something like a CableCARD version of DISH Network’s Hopper could’ve been quite a strong whole-home product. The death of Aria removes a potential competitor from the field, and really effectively leaves only ARRIS’s Moxi lineup to compete with TiVo for the small-to-medium market. The larger MSO market is dominated by traditional players like Motorola and Cisco, though TiVo has made inroads there with the likes of Charter.

The Fat Lady Sings For Aria At CableOne

MegaZone — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:10:04 +0000

EchoStar just hasn’t had much luck with their Aria solution for cable. They’ve been trying to market CableCARD products to cable MSOs for a while now, including SlingLoaded models, but they haven’t been able to get much traction. Last summer they branded the effort under the Aria name, and managed to get CableOne to trial the system. CableOne, as a mid-sized MSO with 720,000 customers, was just the kind of operator EchoStar was targeting with Aria.

But it seems it has fallen apart, and CableOne has pulled Aria out of trials, as reported by Light Reading. But what is bad news for EchoStar could be good news for TiVo:

CableOne’s interest in EchoStar, Charlie Ergen’s technology and set-top box outfit, goes back a bit. EchoStar and TiVo Inc. were among the companies the MSO was looking at in mid-2010, when CableOne was mulling its next-gen video service strategy. TiVo has once again emerged as “a very strong candidate” for that business, a source says. Motorola Mobility Inc. remains CableOne’s primary digital set-top and security vendor.

Things have changed since mid-2010, TiVo now has a proven track record with deployments at RCN, Suddenlink, Grande Communications, and Charter. Including the ability to rapidly deploy with a new operator, proven with the short turn around time on the Grande deal. CableOne falls right between RCN and Suddenlink in size, so it would be right in TiVo’s sweet spot.

Via Light Reading.

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The Final Curtain Falls On Aria

The Fat Lady Sings For Aria At CableOne