So TiVo sued Verizon. Then Motorola sued TiVo in apparent retaliation (much like Microsoft sued TiVo after TiVo sued AT&T). Now TiVo is filing a counter suit against Motorola (as they did against Microsoft), and to top it off they’ve included Motorola customer Time Warner Cable in the new suit. There’s some high stakes legal poker going on here.

Tongue out of cheek, the timing is primarily due to the stay on the Motorola suit, which was in place while the AT&T & Microsoft cases proceeded as they involved the same patents, being lifted. As long as the case was stayed TiVo was under no pressure to file a counter suit, but not things are moving forward. TiVo announced the suit in a simple SEC filing:

On March 26, 2012, the Company filed an answer and amended counterclaims in response to a patent infringement suit that Motorola initiated against the Company in the Eastern District of Texas in 2011 that was stayed until earlier this year. In its response, the Company alleged counterclaims against Motorola and Time Warner Cable, one of Motorola’s customers, for infringing U.S. Patent Nos. 6,233,389, 7,529,465, and 6,792,195 owned by TiVo.

The full court filing has been posted on Scribd (thanks to Sam Biller):
TiVo files answers and amended counterclaims against Motorola & Time Warner Cable

The patents involved are the same core patents behind the EchoStar/DISH Network and AT&T settlements, as well as the ongoing case against FiOS. TiVo’s been successful so far, 2 for 2, so that’s a good sign. Time Warner Cable is the only remaining top five MVPD in the US that TiVo doesn’t have a business agreement or a legal settlement from. TiVo has business agreements with the top two, Comcast and DirecTV, and fifth place Cox Communications. Third place DISH Network settled with TiVo. That leaves TWC in fourth place, and many investors have wondered when TiVo would take some form of action against TWC if they didn’t come to an agreement.

These legal fights tend to drag on for years, so I’m not going to hold my breath waiting on any outcome just yet.

Chicago IL
Denver CO
Los Angeles CA
New York NY
Philadelphia PA
Phoenix AZ
Sacramento CA
San Francisco CA
Seattle WA
Washington DC

As DirecTV’s forum post states:“The national rollout for all remaining markets is still being evaluated.” This isn’t a surprised though, we were warned to expect this on TiVo’s last quarterly call.

As for pricing:

The TiVo® HD DVR will carry a $5 per month TiVo service fee, which is in addition to the $10 per month HD Access fee and the $7 per month DVR service fee.

The post includes a TiVo Overview v1.2 document PDF which I’ve uploaded.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the new DirecTiVo is going to fare well. DirecTV delayed it long enough to get their new, in-house HD UI out and the new five tuner HR34 is about to release as well. The THR22 is based on the old HR22 HW and the TiVo OS it is running looks like the old TiVo HD platform tweaked for DirecTV, and not the TiVo Premiere base – no HD UI. Now, we won’t know until people get the units and report on the version, so it could be similar to RCN’s initial deployment where it was the newer software but with the HD UI disabled. Still, no HD UI is a drawback when DirecTV’s own DVRs now have it. And, as you can see in the document, the THR22 lacks many features now standard in other DirecTV DVRs, such as multi-room viewing. And, adding insult to injury, even YouTube is not supported – something TiVo had long before DirecTV added it to their own units.

Still, it is a TiVo option for DirecTV users, and it is certainly better than the old DirecTiVo units still limping along after all these years. So for those who’ve been holding out for a new TiVo option for DirecTV, this will likely be a welcome release. But for customers who aren’t already in the TiVo fold, I don’t think this will win over many converts. Especially not with the additional $5/month fee.

Spotted via InvestorVillage.

YouTube user NeeoTV has kindly uploaded the first two spots:

Via InvestorVillage.

I’ll tackle the second one first, Comcast. For this one I think people just aren’t paying attention. This was announced back in May, and ever since people have been asking when? Which doesn’t make much sense, as the announcement says when and where we’ll see it!

These statements by Comcast and TiVo relate to, among other things, the future integration, availability and promotion of Xfinity TV On Demand Service on TiVo Premiere set-top boxes in select markets with the first expected market to be San Francisco Bay Area early next year and availability in additional markets after that.

OK, so it is hidden in the fine print, but it is there. Elsewhere Comcast made statements that the first customers may see pilot deployments around the end of the year. So either way we shouldn’t expect anything until around the end of the year, and then it’ll be a limited deployment for a while I’d bet. Deploy to one area, shake things out, then expand. But as Comcast is bringing Xfinity TV On Demand to a number of platforms this isn’t an effort unique to TiVo. What’d be really interesting is if Comcast sold some kind of OTT subscription so non-Comcast customers could access Comcast OnDemand. That’d be radical.

And just in case you think Comcast might be backing out, they just mentioned this in a filing with the FCC:

We are working with TiVo on a solution to deliver Xfinity On Demand to TiVo CableCARD devices. We are aiming to start trialing the service later this year.

So be patient.

Now, what about Cox? The deal with Cox was announced way back in August, 2010 and since then both parties have been pretty much silent on the progress, if any. This has led to increasing speculation that the deal collapsed and both parties were just ignoring it. But that doesn’t appear to be the case. Thanks to a comment on InvestorVillage I was alerted to a comment posted on the DSL Reports Forums by a Cox employee in July:

As far as TiVo Premier goes, it is still an active project, but we don’t have a launch date to announce yet.

One comment from Cox in July not enough? Well on Tuesday TiVo responded to a comment on Facebook:

We are working with Cox to enable their VOD on the TiVo Premiere. As soon as we have more information on timing we will update the page!

It is certainly taking a while, but I’m not that surprised. IP-enabling OnDemand isn’t a trivial task. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be more work than Cox & TiVo expected. But I’m glad to see the work continues.

The first TiVo Premiere will cost Grande customers $12.99/month on top of their standard service fees. Each additional Premiere on the same account costs $14.99/month. And you will be able to MRV with retail TiVo units, though Grande OnDemand will not be available to retail Premieres. (I don’t really understand why MSOs who offer TiVo units with OnDemand can’t support retail units too.)

It is good to see this launch so quickly.

Via InvestorVillage.

There’s also a video of a demo of the TiVo Premiere Elite being given at the CEDIA show a week ago, shot by Digital Trends.

Via InvestorVillage.

Picked up via InvestorVillage.

And, seemingly in response to the court not considering their workaround, Dish Network & EchoStar filed suit against TiVo in a Delaware court, asking them to find that their new software does not infringe on TiVo’s ’389 patent. A victory would allow them to continue selling DVRs with the new software without threat of further litigation. However, it seems highly unlikely that the case will reach the court in Delaware before the Texas court meets again in September. So it isn’t clear what, if any, impact this will have on the existing case.

Multichannel News has some good coverage of the situation.

And, if you’re not in the market for an HDTV, you can get the TiVo HD for $230.13.

Thanks to reader Kevin for the tip. He got it from WatchingTiVo at InvestorVillage, who spotted it at Gizmodo.

Dear Judge Folsom:

Pursuant to the Court’s April 23, 2008 Order (Docket No. 822), plaintiff TiVo submits two topics of discussion for the status conference on May 30, 2008: (1) Enforcement of the Court’s Permanent Injunction, and (2) Determination of the damages TiVo sustained during the stay of the injunction. The issues relating to each topic are set forth in Section B of this letter.

To provide prompt resolution of these issues, TiVo requests:

• A hearing at the earliest possible date to determine whether EchoStar should be held in contempt for its failure to disable the DVR functionality in the Infringing Products and for its placement of new infringing DVRs (and new EchoStar products that are only colorably different); and

• Permission to serve limited discovery to obtain additional information before determining the damages TiVo sustained during the stay of the injunction, and, if necessary, bringing a motion for an order to show cause why EchoStar is not in contempt for the continuing use of the Infringing Products, changed only by downloading modified, but still infringing, software (and new EchoStar products that are only colorably different).

TiVo is also prepared to address any questions that the Court may have about the pending Bill of Costs that TiVo submitted on September 22, 2006, which is awaiting resolution. TiVo’s requested costs total $333,600.03.

The Honorable David Folsom

There is a lot more in the complete filing, so check it out if you’re interested. TiVo does not agree with EchoStar that the latter’s software update has eliminated the infringement:

On May 12, 2008, EchoStar made its modified source code available for review by TiVo. EchoStar also waived privilege and produced to TiVo three opinions of counsel relating to EchoStar’s modified software. After review of the software that EchoStar provided and the opinion letters, TiVo does not believe that the modifications avoid infringement.

So the saga continues, despite recent analyst speculation that Dish Network is close to settling with TiVo.

Thanks to reader Jack for the heads up on the post.

EDIT: Here’s a link to the full filing with exhibits, as a PDF. Created and posted by ‘Mainer’ from the InvestorVillage boards.

Disclaimer: I’m currently employed by Sling Media, which is owned by EchoStar.