In addition to focusing on small- and medium-size U.S. operators, TiVo will seek to expand distribution in Western Europe, Rogers said. But TiVo has parted with one potential partner in Telenor’s Canal Digital direct-to-home satellite service in Scandinavia, Rogers said. TiVo signed an agreement with Canal Digital in late 2010, but the company has undergone a management shakeup, including the departure of CEO Tone Krohn Clausen, and is said to have been up for sale.

“They had a big strategic process they were going through in selling the company and we decided pouring resources into a company that might be selling itself near term might not be the smartest thing,” Rogers said. “It’s not clear what they are doing and for the kind of shoulder that it takes roll out what we do, we knew that it would not be the best circumstances.”

So we finally have an explanation of what happened with that deal. It’s dead, Jim. Well, at least for now. It sounds like the door is still open if Canal Digital sorts their issues out and is still interested, but TiVo doesn’t want to get involved for now.

You might have noticed the first sentence in the quoted material, about small- and medium-sized US operators. That’s actually the main gist of the CED article. TiVo is seeing most of their traction in the US come from those operators, and not the big boys. So they aren’t putting a lot of energy into pursuing ‘Comcast-size’ deals. While TiVo’s deal with Comcast is significant, it is clear that Comcast’s focus is on their own in-house developed service, X1. While it seems that Comcast will fulfill their end of the agreement and continue to expand coverage of TiVo support for XFINITY VOD, TiVo is really a secondary offering for them. Their primary push is going to be X1, and understandably so.

Five of the largest MVPDs in TiVo-served territories – Comcast, British Sky Broadcasting, DirecTV, Dish Network and Time Warner Cable – are working on DVR strategies in-house and are unlikely to ever adopt TiVo’s software as their primary platform. I’d also add Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse to that list. While TiVo may be able to collect licensing revenue for their patents from these providers, there’s little chance they’ll contribute directly to subscriber numbers. But the small- and medium-size MSOs don’t have the resources to develop their own DVRs, so they need third party vendors to fill the need – which is where TiVo comes in. They’ve already had success in the US with MSOs such as RCN, Suddenlink, Grande Communications, and more.

Of course, they have landed one major MSO as well – Charter Communications. But the deal seems to be stuck in neutral. Charter began deploying TiVo in Fort Worth, TX last November and at the time planned a“full production launch enterprise wide in the first half of 2012.” However, in February of this year they announced they they were pushing the schedule out, without providing any new time frame.

Since then we haven’t really heard much, and Charter’s TiVo deployment remains limited to Dallas & Ft. Worth, TX. Rogers stated that TiVo is “working closely” with Charter to expand their deployment into new territories. There has been some speculation, which I also heard going around The Cable Show, that Charter might be one of the early customers for the new Pace XG1 running the TiVo software. And that could account for the hold up, waiting for the XG1 to be available, but that’s just a rumor and I don’t know that I’d put much stock in it.

Check out the Consumer Electronics Daily article for yourself.

Joshua covers a lot of interesting territory, with the primary focus being on TiVo’s app support. TiVo is focused on providing a consistent app environment across their platforms, be it retail or provider units. Today the focus on on the Adobe Air/Flash environment which is used on the retail and MSO Premiere units in the US, and the Virgin Media and ONO boxes in Europe. There is still support for the Java environment used on earlier platforms, as in HME, and TiVo is looking at other environments.

For developers seeking to get their app onto TiVo they work directly with TiVo for the retail market, but need to work with the providers for their TiVo units. TiVo can help facilitate those conversations for developers seeking to get their apps on multiple platforms, but it is up to the individual operators to approve an app for their customers.

He also talked a bit about working with different size operators, from giants like Comcast and Charter with millions of users, down to small MSOs with 150,000 subscribers. Definitely worth watching, IMHO. Now if we could just have the SDK released and actually start seeing more apps!

Via Broadband TV News

But now their support page for TiVo has been updated with a link to a PDF for Multi-Room Experience. The PDF details both the TiVo Premiere and TiVo Preview (no mention of the 4-tuner TiVo Premire Q/Elite though), with a table of features for each. (Click for a larger view.)

I’m a little surprised by no YouTube on the Preview, I would’ve taken that for granted as a standard feature. I’m nearly as surprised by the lack of web video support. It seems like there is no broadband streaming video support at all, only local streaming from a TiVo Premiere. There is some OTT content; music services like Rhapsody, Pandora, and Live365 are supported. It is nice to see that scheduling recordings and setting up Wish Lists are ‘Coming Soon’. We’d heard as much earlier from RCN, but confirmation is nice.

While Charter’s deployment timeline has stretched, it is good news that they’re introducing the TiVo Preview to the mix. I am still a bit surprised by the lack of the Premiere Q. The quad-tuner box was tailor made for MSOs. Unless Charter still has too many hybrid service areas and the all-digital Q wouldn’t work for them. In my area I expected to lose some channels on my Premiere Elite, since I’m on Charter, but it turns out the analog channels I used seem to have digital simulcast and I didn’t notice any losses.

Now, I think someone jumped the gun in posting this. If you look closely you’ll notice the pages are marked diagonally with “Draft For Internal Review – Do Not Distribute”. So either someone forgot to save out a new copy of the document without the watermark, or this wasn’t supposed to go live yet. Just in case, here are the two pages of the document – it’s a bit more compact than the 6MB PDF.

Thanks to reader Sam Biller for the tip.

Adjusting for Comcast’s new numbers the top five MSOs, Cablevision, Charter Communications, Comcast Corporation, Cox Communications, and Time Warner Cable, collectively deployed 557,296 CableCARDs. Extending that to the top ten MSOs gives a small bump to 595,296, which shows how many customers are concentrated into the largest MSOs. By way of comparison, these same ten MSOs have installed more thsn 32,000,000 CableCARDs in MSO provided STBs. And that is the best evidence of just how badly CableCARD has flopped in the retail market.

At this point TiVo is effectively the only retail CableCARD vendor left! There are a handful of PC CableCARD tuner products, but the total sales are negligible. CableCARD enabled TVs are all but gone from the market. And now that Moxi is gone I think TiVo is the last retail CableCARD DVR. Personally I think this demonstrates why we need AllVid to create a truly competitive open market.

Cablevision reports 27,472 CableCARD subscribers, an increase of 8% over the previous report. But before you get too excited, the new numbers include subscribers from Optimum West, which was integrated into Cablevision during the quarter. These 27,472 subscribers account for 39,462 CableCARDs, so there are a number of multi-card households. During the reporting period they actually had 5,288 new CableCARD installs, 57% of which were self-installs. The rest opted for professional installs, which cost an average of $34.95. The good news is they average 1.0 truck rolls per install, so they get it right the first time. And they charge $2/month per card.

Charter reported a total of 31,884 CableCARDs in service. And they still average 1.5 truck rolls per professional installation, the worst of the lot. I can believe it, I’m a Charter customer. The techs I’ve worked with have all been great, but many have expressed a desire for more training on CableCARD and TiVo. I’ve heard from a number of them that they’re really not being trained, and it seems like there are a couple of ‘experts’ in the area that they always end up calling. (I’ve had to have Charter out a couple of times for CableCARD and/or Tuning Adapter issues. Invariably it ends up being a back end problem, but the phone techs give up and insist on sending truck. Then the tech ends up calling around until he finds the right person to fix the issue.) Charter also charges $2/month per card, and an average of $35.00 for professional installs.

Comcast, from their corrected 2/23/12 numbers, has 370,407 CableCARDs in customer homes. Since the last report they installed 25,789 new cards, with only 29% being self-installs. It seems like Comcast customers opt for professional installs 71% of the time, which I find surprising, though it might be explained by the pricing. While they charge an average of $26.00 if it is a separate trip, it drops to $7.15 if it is part of a larger installation. And it takes an average of 1.04 truck rolls, so odds are good they’ll get it right the first time. Comcast’s first card is generally free, and additional cards in the same device average $1.50. (It isn’t in the report, but I believe additional cards in other devices are normally $2/month.)

Cox has 52,479 CableCARDs in service, at an average cost of $1.99/month. Customers who opt for a professional install pay an average of $24.00, though it takes an average of 1.1 visits. So your more likely to get to have the chance to get to know your installer better than with Cablevision or Comcast.

TWC has 75,542 CableCARDs in use with 54,575 subscribers, so again we know there are a number of multi-card households. TWC’s cards are the most expensive, at an average of $2.37 (I’ve heard that they charge quite a bit in some areas, which would explain the elevated average). Surprisingly their install numbers are even most skewed than Comcast’s, with 83% electing professional installs, which cost an average of $28.16. Why do so many people opt for professional installation? I’d love to know the motivation there.

All in all, not much has changed since the last report. I wish the different MSOs would normalize their reporting – some report self-install vs. professional installs. Some report costs with more granularity. Subscribers vs. number of cards. It’d be nice if they’d all report the same things in the same way. I can dream.

But in looking at this page I noticed something else. TiVo has a general page linking to all of their MSO offerings. Now, we know all about RCN, Suddenlink, Grande Communications, and Charter. But there are two other MSO’s listed on the page which I’d previously managed to overlook: Comporium and Northland Communications.

I have to say, finding TiVo on Comporium’s website wasn’t easy, but it is there. They’re a small MSO with service areas in North & South Carolina. It looks like they put out a press release way back on 2/2/11 announcing the TiVo Premiere. They lease each TiVo Premiere for $16.95/month, which is $10 more than their standard HD DVR for the first box, but only $4 more for each additional box. That doesn’t seem like too bad a deal.

Finding TiVo on the Northland site is much easier. They’re another small MSO, but much more spread out according to their “Who We Are” page:

Northland Communications currently owns and operates smaller-market cable systems in Alabama, California, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Washington. Northland is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and has a divisional office in Statesboro, Georgia.

It looks like Northland is referring customers directly to TiVo for purchases, but they’re also offering leases on TiVo Premiere units for $13.95/month in ‘select sites’.

Comporium is one of the small MSOs serviced via TiVo’s partnership with Evolution Digital, as much as stated in the press release. I’m not positive about Northland, but I expect the same is true there given their size. If you know of other small MSOs offering TiVo to their customers please let us know in a comment. I’m sure these deals can’t be adding many subscribers to TiVo’s totals, but every little bit is a positive. And I think small MSOs offering TiVo is a good thing for the customers too.

Right now Charter has TiVo commercially available in Fort Worth, TX, and in trials in five additional markets. They’d previously stated that they planned to have a full TiVo launch enterprise wide in the first half of 2012. However, it looks like, while things are going well, they now expect to need a bit more time to reach that goal. On the call Charter EVP and Chief Financial Officer Christopher Winfrey stated, as transcribed by Seekinig Alpha:

Our four strategic priority for 2012 is to change the dynamic in our video business. We’ve deployed a version of the TiVo product in Fort Worth and are working with TiVo to field-test the product in several other markets with our employees. We don’t expect that testing will be completed in time for us to fully launch TiVo across the enterprise by the end of the second quarter as previously projected.

Later, during the Q&A, new President & CEO Thomas Rutledge stated:

And TiVo, I’ve always thought it was a fabulous user-interface, and I’m glad to see that Charter and TiVo have been working together to bring that user-interface to our customers and so, as we work through those issues, I’m excited by the way TiVo can present information to our customers.

Later, when asked directly about the push out in the timeline, EVP Technology and President Commercial Services Donald Detampel responded:

I can respond to that. So first of all, I just want to echo Tom’s words, I mean, we remained very committed to the TiVo platform. We believe that the experience it delivers to our customers is superior than anything we have in the market right now; so we remain very committed. In our particular that the integration of the TiVo platform into our platform, basically we had different VOD systems than TiVo had integrated in the past. So what we’re working through are some of those integration issues, but we had previously believed that through the first-half of this year that we’d be pretty well implemented across the enterprise. We now know based on our testing that we will require some further field testing, and we’re not going to deliver that product to our customers until we know it’s fully baked and right.

So it really sounds like the issue is just integrating the various VOD back end systems that Charter uses. Charter has multiple different VOD systems in different service territories. I believe they’re using SeaChange in Ft. Worth, which is a system TiVo has previous experience with at other MSOs. So Charter may be able to deploy TiVo in territories where they’re using systems already successfully integrated with TiVo, while adding more time to the schedule to complete integration and testing of different systems for other service areas.

Overall it sounds like Charter remains committed to TiVo, and these delays aren’t too surprising or unusual. Needing more time to fully polish a new integration effort isn’t exactly unheard of, and I’m sure both Charter & TiVo would rather take the time to get things right than to deploy a problematic system to customers. Perhaps the extra time will also mean Charter will launch in some markets with the Premiere Q & Preview instead of the base Premiere, which is used in Ft. Worth. Time will tell.

The first video is nearly 19 minutes long and extensively covers the features of the TiVo Premiere from Charter.

The second video is roughly nine minutes long and covers help and troubleshooting, answering common questions users may have about TiVo.

I’d embed them here as I usually do, but Charter has disabled embedding for these videos. You’ll have to click through to YouTube. Sorry.

The videos are well done, though I could’ve done without the soporific background music. They provide a good look at the product & service, which should be good for helping Charter customers understand what they’d get with TiVo.

• DirecTV will finally release the new THR22 DirecTiVo in “early December”.
• Charter will be launching retail “very soon”.
• Comcast OnDemand support is in field trials now.

I think the DirecTiVo news is the most anticipated, so in TiVo’s own words:

Additionally, DirecTV has informed us that they intend to initiate the launch of the TiVo-DIRECTV product in select markets in December with a nationwide rollout to follow early next year.

Still, don’t set your expectations too high. We know the new DirecTiVo is based on the old HR22 DVR and it will lack a number of features found in the current DirecTV DVRs. DirecTV really doesn’t seem to want to release it, but they’re obligated to do so. They’re clearly focused on their in-house units with their five-tuner DVR, new HD UI, and whole-home support.

In other news, TiVo has had their first increase in total subscriptions in four years – adding 117,000 subscribers compared to a 33,000 loss last quarter. This is mainly thanks to Virgin Media’s runaway success, but also growth from RCN & Suddenlink. With ONO, Grande Communications, and Charter coming online, and the new DirecTiVo finally shipping, the MSO subscribers will become even more significant going forward. And TiVo indicated further MSO deals are pending, with TiVo having responded to several Request for Proposals.

Conversely, the retail side continues to slide. They added 30,000 new subscribers, but lost 60,000 old ones – for a 30k net loss. MSOs actually added 147,000 – the lower 117,000 net add is due to this loss. The good news is the new subscribers are worth more to TiVo as the higher monthly fees increase revenue per customer. If & when Comcast launches VOD support on TiVo and provides some marketing and free installations, as promised, it may help the retail numbers. But it seems clear the MSO side of the house is going to be the real growth engine.

Oh, there was one other interesting point. Rogers mentioned that most of TiVo’s development now serves both MSO & retail. They’re building a common code base for all platforms, MSO and retail, to better leverage their R&D spending. In the past the two sides operated pretty much independently. Remember the soft-TiVo product for Comcast & Cox was a completely new Java code base. While retail boxes remained on the conventional development path. Now MSO & retail units will be running common, if not identical, software and hardware will also be shared.

We’re already seeing that with the TiVo Premiere Q for MSOs and TiVo Premiere Elite for retail. It is basically the same box with a different hard drive capacity. And the 14.x software used by MSOs, such as RCN, and the retail units is from a common base. This means that any feature TiVo develops can be released to retail and offered to their MSO partners simultaneously – contractual issues permitting of course. (See Netflix being unavailable on MSO units.) It is also makes things more efficient, you don’t need two development teams both implementing the same thing on different platforms. Even the software for Virgin Media and ONO, which runs on third party hardware, appears to be from the common code base.

One thing I was hoping to hear, but didn’t, was news on the TiVo Preview coming to retail. I really want this and it is annoying that it is available to MSOs but not retail. It is the perfect companion to the TiVo Premiere Elite.

Overall though, I thought it was a pretty good quarter.

We’ve also initiated a key component of our next generation TV strategy with our TiVo pilot underway in Texas. Early pilot participants have responded favorably to the overall service, particularly the improved recommendations, user interface and search capabilities, all of which enhance the customer experience and should increase usage of our on-demand library.

We will complete a full production launch in Texas and conduct pilots in a few additional markets later this year with a full production launch enterprise wide in the first half of 2012. As you can see we are making great strides in improving our video offering and we believe that these enhance our competitive position in video.

And now Charter has their TiVo page up, and it says TiVo is coming soon to Ft. Worth, TX. And coming soon to other markets after that. Since they plan to have it launched ‘enterprise wide’ in the first half of 2012 it seems like it should happen fairly rapidly.

Charter also has a quick demo video up to promote their TiVo service:

They have a good deal of support information up as well, including a Viewer’s Guide, Quick Guide, and Quick Tips. The materials strongly promote Charter’s OnDemand, YouTube, and Pandora. Interestingly they also make a point to promote TiVo Desktop and the ability to transfer shows via TiVoToGo. But, as a Charter customer myself, they copy protect nearly all of their content. Unless they’re planning to change their practices it seems like their customers are in for a disappointment.

It looks like the only video services supported will be Charter OnDemand, YouTube, and web videos. No Netflix, Hulu Plus, Blockbuster OnDemand, Music Choice, or Amazon Instant Video for Charter TiVo customers. That’s interesting since just last week they announced an initiative to integrate Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video content into search results on Charter.net. Perhaps down the road they’ll enable these same services on their TiVo units. It sounds like Charter wants to do so, but their hands are tied by rights issues. From an article last week in FierceCable about the announcement:

Charter spokeswoman Anita Lamont told FierceCable that the MSO would like to allow subscribers to search for Web video content from Hulu, Amazon and Netflix through their cable set-tops, but that rights issues prevent it from offering that fuction. “Right now, that functionality is essentially disabled on leased boxes due to programming rights issues. This is disappointing to us, and our customers, but we believe that it should and will change over time,” Lamont said. “This is all very fluid, and we anticipate that the rights equation will change over time,” she added.

On the music side in addition to Pandora they will have Rhapsody and Live365 support.

Charter customers will have Multi-Room Streaming (MRS), and they will be getting the TiVo Preview as well, if the Viewer’s Guide is anything to go by. From Page 57:

Streaming from another TiVo Box

Movies and programs stored on a TiVo Premiere DVR can be streamed to another TiVo device (either another TiVo Premiere DVR or a TiVo Preview HD-STB) using Multi-Room Streaming (MRS). (Streaming means playing a video as it downloads, without having to wait for the download to finish.)

I’m happy to see TiVo is using the same Multi-Room Streaming “MRS” abbreviation I’ve been using. (I swear, I didn’t know. It just made sense vs. MRV for Multi-Room Viewing.) I take issue with the description though. Streaming is not downloading, there is nothing to wait for, no ‘finish’. And no, it isn’t confused with the MRV copying – that’s the previous entry in the manual. I think this is a case of a confused tech writer who didn’t really understand the subject matter. TiVo, you might want to get that corrected.

Streaming means, well, streaming the content directly from the other unit for display via the local unit, with no local copy being made. That’s as opposed to MRV which is a copying process and allows you to begin viewing the local copy while it is still transferring.

There is one item I found very, very interesting. On Page 75 of the Viewer’s Guide:

Tuning adapter

This setting is not applicable to your setup.

As I said, I’m a Charter customer. Charter is heavily invested in using Switched Digital Video (SDV), and as such I need to use a Tuning Adapter with my retail TiVo. Could this mean that Charter is using the same IP back channel used for OnDemand for SDV? If so, that’s the one thing that would kind of tempt me to use a Charter TiVo box instead of a retail unit. I’d love to get rid of my TA. It is the weakest link in my setup. Every once in a while it resets or locks up and I lose recordings until I power cycle it. And I sometimes have recordings fail with the reported reason being the video signal was not available, but my cable wasn’t out – sometimes the other tuner recorded a different program at the same time. I suspect the TA failed to tune the SDV channel.

TiVo, Charter, I’m begging you. If you have developed this software for the Charter-distributed units, please find a way to bring it to retail units! Cox and Comcast are planning to support OnDemand on retail units, surely it can be done. For that matter, give us OnDemand – all it can do is increase your business!

When Charter brings this to my service area (Worcester, MA) I may get a unit to try it out. But I’m still more interested in the retail TiVo Elite’s four tuners and broad support for OTT content. Being able to handle SDV without a Tuning Adapter is tempting, given the TA issues I’ve had, but it isn’t enough to convince me. I really don’t understand why MSOs like Charter, RCN, Suddenlink, and Grande Communication don’t allow retail TiVo units to access their OnDemand content, etc. They have the infrastructure in place and the software exists, why keep customers locked out of services they’d be happy to pay for?

Speaking of the TiVo Premiere Elite, I’ve received one of the few review units TiVo is sent out to bloggers & press. It just arrived late this week, I’m planning to get it set up tomorrow.

That’s how much of a flop CableCARD has been at retail, less than 2% of the cards deployed are used in retail devices, like TiVo. I don’t blame the retail devices, but rather the pain involved in obtaining CableCARD (self-installs only mandated 8/8/2011) and the artificial limitations on retail CableCARD devices (no OnDemand, for example). tru2way is an even bigger flop, basically being stillborn. And this is why I don’t feel like we can rely on cable industry developed solutions, but rather we need something like a solid AllVid mandate backed by and FCC with some teeth to make sure it happens.

But I digress, let’s get back to this report and look at each of the five MSOs reporting.

Cablevision has 25,303 CableCARD subscribers with 36,692 cards deployed, an average of 1.45 per household. For this reporting period, which spans time before and after the self-install mandate, 43% or 1,395 were professional installs and 57% or 1,851 were self-installs. They charge $2/month per CableCARD. And if the customer elects for a professional installation there is a fee that averages $34.95, but the average number of truck rolls per install is just 1.0, so it seems like they get it right the first time.

Charter Communications had 31,425 CableCARDs in service as of August 31, 2011. They begin allowing self-installs on August 1, before that a professional installation was required. Interestingly Charter says their average number of truck rolls per install is 1.5, which indicates they’re customers probably have some more trouble getting it working. I’m a Charter customer and I have required multiple truck rolls in the past due to installers not having working cards on their truck, etc. Charter also charges and average of $2/month per CableCARD, and there is an average $35.00 fee for professional installs.

Comcast is the big one, with 367,064 CableCARDs in customer homes. In this reporting period they installed 38,403 CableCARDs, split almost exactly 50/50 between professional installs and self-installs. The average truck rolls per install is 1.03, so it seems like they get it right nearly every time. Comcast also has the best pricing, the first card is free and each additional card is $1.50/month. For professional installation, if it is part of a larger install it is an average of just $7.15. For a trip just to install a CableCARD they charge an average of $26.

Cox Communications has 50,791 CableCARDs in the field. Each card costs $1.99/month. For professional installations they charge an average of $24 and it takes an average of 1.1 truck rolls. So not as good as Cablevision and Comcast, but certainly a lot better than Charter.

Time Warner Cable has 74,047 CableCARDs in place with 53,503 customers. Until 8/8/2011 and the FCC mandate they required a professional installation, since they they’ve allowed self-installs. Which helps explain the 87%/13% split for the reporting period. The good news is they seem to get it right with an average of 1.03 truck rolls for professional installs, which cost an average of $26.64. CableCARDs run an average of $2.50/month.

So it seems like Charter is having the most trouble getting CableCARD working right the first time, and Cox is struggling a little, but Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable are doing fairly well in that department.

There’s more interesting information in the full report, if you care to read it.

But, IMHO, the real big news came at the 08:01 mark when Tom said:“Our deal with DirecTV is moving toward launch with the DirecTV TiVo HD DVR now being manufactured. And we expect DirecTV to publicly share specific launch details in the relatively near future.” I know we’ve had numerous release date promises in the past, but DirecTV isn’t going to begin manufacturing hardware if they don’t have pretty damn solid plans to release it. Perhaps the new HD DVR DirecTV obliquely referred to on their recent financial call really was the new DirecTiVo after all.

Later in the call, during the Q&A session at the 42:26 mark Rogers talks a bit about the agreement with DirecTV including the“significant marketing obligations” DirecTV has once the new unit launches. He added that DirecTV will“have plenty of incentive to market based on those obligations.”

And finally, at the 46:42 mark he is asked about the 08:01 statement regarding the new DirecTiVo being in manufacturing, specifically if that means the code had been accepted. In response Rogers stated:“…the boxes are in the manufacturing process with our code having been delivered…” So it sounds like things really are, finally, moving forward to release and based on the statements on the call I think we’ll see the units released this year.

I’m not going to place a bet on it though. Not just yet.

As for the financial results in general, TiVo’s MSO business is starting to show positive results.

                                TIVO INC.
                               OTHER DATA

                                                      Three Months Ended
Subscriptions                                              July 31,
                                                     --------------------
            (Subscriptions in thousands)                2011       2010
                                                     ---------  ---------
TiVo-Owned Subscription Gross Additions:                    25         32        

        Subscription Net Additions/(Losses):
TiVo-Owned                                                 (43)       (48)
MSOs/Broadcasters                                           10        (77)
                                                     ---------  ---------
  Total Subscription Net Additions/(Losses)                (33)      (125)
Cumulative Subscriptions:
TiVo-Owned                                               1,165      1,366
MSOs/Broadcasters                                          763      1,018
                                                     ---------  ---------
  Total Cumulative Subscriptions                         1,928      2,384
% of TiVo-Owned Cumulative Subscriptions paying
 recurring fees                                             57%        56%

So while they continue to bleed TiVo-owned subs, losing a net 43,000 this quarter – which was down from a loss of 48,000 a year earlier, the MSO subs grew by a net 10,000. That’s an improvement of 87,000 from the loss of 77,000 subs a year earlier. I’m sure a lot of that reversal is due to Virgin Media alone adding over 50,000 subscribers, with the rest contributed by RCN, Suddenlink, & TiVo in ANZ and likely reduced losses from DirecTV. Also a positive, the average revenue per MSO subscriber increased from $1.20 a year ago to $1.94. Clearly the new subscribers are worth more to TiVo.

Update: While I was writing up this post, Dave Zatz also posted at Zatz Not Funny. The biggest piece of evidence is this new DirecTV training video which DBSTalk members noticed, and that Engadget obtained and posted:

Unfortunately the video confirms some of the earlier rumored information. It does look like the hardware is similar to the old HR-22 DirecTV DVR. The video confirms that the units do not support multi-room viewing. They do support networking and other DirecTV network-based features, so whole home support could theoretically be added via a software update. And the UI appears to be the old SD UI, as first reported a couple of years back. There had been some hope that all of the delays meant the unit had been updated. On the other hand, the new box appears to come with the same remote as the TiVo Premiere.

Furthermore, Zatz Not Funny received an anonymous comment claiming the new units will be delivered on 9/25/11. Though perhaps there is another model in the pipeliine, as rumored at DBSTalk.

• Comcast: Checking their website it doesn’t look like anything has changed since last week. There are still FAQs saying that you need a professional install, but CED Magazine is reporting that they’re allowing self-installs now:
  

  “Certain markets have had limited self-install options for CableCards since about 2007,” said Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer. “Beginning in early August, we’ll start rolling out a CableCard self-install program across our footprint where customers will be able to go into our sales, service or payment centers and pick up a CableCard self-install kit, go home, install it, and then call in to activate it.”

  Comcast doesn’t ship the CableCard self-install kits to customers.

• Time Warner Cable: As expected, TWC has started allowing CableCARD self-installs. They’ve even created help guides for InfiniTV, Moxi, and TiVo.
• Cox Communications: They were already allowing CableCARD self-installs before the mandate. They have an instruction sheet online.
• Charter Communications: Their website gives mixed signals. The FAQ still says professional installation, but they have a self-install page. I think they just missed updating the page:
  

  Due to the technical complexity associated with the pairing of the devices, all installations of a CableCARD MUST be completed by a Charter Technician. Self-installation of CableCARDs is NOT an option for customers and thus customers cannot pick up a CableCARD from a local office

• Verizon FiOS: As with Cox, they were already offering CableCARD self-installs. You can order your CableCARD online.
• Cablevision: They’ve also been offering CableCARD self-installs. The information is on their site.
• Bright House Networks: They allow self-installs for Road Runner broadband, which means they should be allowing CableCARD self-installs as of August 8th. But I can’t find info on self-installs on their site, and there is a page that still says they’ll be allowed soon:
  

  CableCARDs are professionally installed by Bright House Networks. The option to install a CableCARD yourself will be available in the near future.

  If anyone knows of information on their site indicating CableCARD self-installs, leave a comment.

• Suddenlink Communications: According to their CableCARD FAQ they are allowing self-installs.
• Mediacom Communications: I couldn’t find a good reference on their website, but a post on their support forum by one of their reps on Saturday indicates they are allowing users to pick up CableCARDs and do self-installs:
  

  You can pick-up or have a tech install a cable card for you for a minor fee. This would be $1.99 per month for each card.

• Insight Communications: I couldn’t find anything useful on their site. Searching their site for ‘CableCARD’ only returns four hits. It looks like they offer broadband self-installs, so they should be covered by the August 8th mandate. If you have more info, let us know in a comment.
• CableOne: Same as Insight, nothing clear from their site. It seems like they offer broadband and cable box self-installs, so they should also be covered under the August 8th mandate. Leave a comment if you have any info, thanks.
• WideOpenWest Networks: Their website still says they require a technician to install CableCARD, it is under the ‘Equipment’ section of the FAQ.
  

  Can I install a CableCARD by myself?

  No. To ensure that your installation is performed properly, a technician is required to install and activate your CableCARD. Please contact us to set up an installation appointment.

  They do seem to allow cable modem self-installs, so they should be under the mandate.

• RCN: I couldn’t find a good page on their site, but I did find a forum post on DSLReports dated July 28th, by Jason Nealis, RCN’s Sr. Director, Video Product and Video Operations:
  

  The way this will work is that a customer can receive a kit via mail or they can pick one up at a local office.

  In the Kit it will have instructions on whom to call, basically you will install the card and then go thru a IVR and have the work order closed and a hit sent to the card.

  Then you will have to call in with your pairing information and have the card paired to receive encrypted channels.

OK, I think that’s deep enough. These smaller provider’s tend to have sites that aren’t as useful when it comes to finding info, and those I’ve listed already cover the vast majority of cable customers in the US.

If you have any additional info, please leave a comment.

EDIT 8/11: Matthew Zinn, Senior Vice President of General Counsel for TiVo, today made a blog post about the new CableCARD rules which included a few useful links:

In the meantime, for additional information regarding CableCARDs and consumers’ rights visit www.fcc.gov/guides/cablecard-know-your-rights or www.fcc.gov/guides/digital-cable-compatibility-cablecards-plug-and-play.

If you have questions as to whether your cable operator is complying with the CableCARD rules, you can email the FCC at CableCARDEnf@fcc.gov or call (202) 418-1160. To file a complaint, visit www.fcc.gov/complaints.

If your cable provider isn’t following the new rules, report them to the FCC.