Gizmo Lovers Blog » CED Magazine

Evolution Digital Promotes TiVo To NCTC Members

MegaZone — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:41:13 +0000

Way back in 2005 TiVo announced a deal with the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) to make TiVo available to their members – over 1,000 Tier 2 & 3 cable operators. But nothing big ever seemed to come of it.

Now TiVo is being marketed to the NCTC again, only this time it is through Evolution Digital. Evolution Digital has made a new deal with the NCTC to market DTAs (Digital Transport Adapters) and TiVo products to NCTC members. Dealing collectively through the NCTC gives the smaller operators more bargaining power to get better deals. Currently the TiVo Premiere is included in the deal, but TiVo multi-room solutions (which I read as the Premiere Q/Elite and Preview) will be added in the coming months.

Via CED Magazine.

44% of US Households Have a DVR, 73% of Cable Customers use VOD

MegaZone — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 07:25:55 +0000

Leichtman Research Group has published new research showing 44% of US households have a DVR, and 14% of US households have multiple DVRs. That’s up from only 8% of US households that had a DVR in 2005. They also report 73% of digital cable subscribers have used VOD, and 87% of this group have used VOD in the past month. 62% have used VOD in the past month – 10% more than a year earlier. As for VOD and streaming replacing TV? About 90% of TV viewing in the US is still live TV.

Some more findings, as reported by CED Magazine:

80 percent of DVR owners rate the service 8 to 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being excellent) – compared with 80 percent last year and 77 percent two years ago.
62 percent of cable VOD users rate the service 8 to 10 – compared with 60 percent last year and 55 percent two years ago.
74 percent of premium on-demand (POD) users rate VOD 8 to 10 – compared with 54 percent of non-POD users.
63 percent of all Netflix subscribers rate the Watch Instantly feature 8 to 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being an extremely important feature or benefit of the Netflix service) – compared with 48 percent last year and 37 percent two years ago.
20 percent of Netflix subscribers use Watch Instantly daily, and 57 percent weekly – last year, 10 percent used Watch Instantly daily, and 43 percent weekly.
78 percent of Watch Instantly users use it to watch movies and TV shows on a TV set.
86 percent of Netflix households subscribe to a multichannel video service, and 43 percent with a multichannel video service subscribe to a premium service – similar to all households in the sample, and similar to Netflix households last year.

So while conventional television is still going strong, time-shifted access, VOD, and streaming services are clearly growing in importance.

Via CED Magazine.

Sling Media SlingCatcher Now Shipping

MegaZone — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:34:46 +0000

As with the Slingbox PRO-HD two weeks ago, since I work for Sling Media now it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to review it, but the SlingCatcher officially shipped yesterday. Instead of reviewing it, here’s a roundup of coverage I’ve seen:

Sling Community – Blog
Sling Community – Review
Sling Community – Review: SlingPlayer for TV
Sling Community – Review: MyMedia
Sling Community – Review: SlingProjector
ZatzNotFunny
Engadget
EngadgetHD
Gizmodo
CNET – Crave
CED Magazine
Obsessable
SlashGear
NewsFactor Network
HD Update
SFGate
Wired
Register Hardware
TG Daily
Stuff.tv
TechWhack
Electronista
Silicon Alley Insider
Electronic House
Pocket-lint
PC World
BLORGE
BroadcastNewsroom
Sci-Tech Today
Gearlog
TrustedReviews
Coolest Gadgets

Both the Slingbox PRO-HD and SlingCatcher MSRP at USD$299.99, but the best deals I’ve seen on both are from PROVANTAGE – currently Slingbox PRO-HD for $241.70 and SlingCatcher for $240.47.