Pay TV Time-Shifting Thought and Technology Leaders: Cablevision’s RS-DVR and Time Warner Cable’s Start Over and Look Back Services

Author: Robert Clark, Principal Analyst, Multi-Channel Video

Published: 02 Sep 2008

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals August 4th decision reversing the district court’s copyright violation ruling in the case of Twentieth Century Fox (including Disney, Paramount, The Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS and NBC) vs. Cablevision, has left the entire cable industry wondering. .The earlier decision in March 2007 delayed Cablevision’s planned remote storage DVR service rollout. Is this newest court ruling the final catalyst for unfettered network-based DVR rollouts? The good news is that the court opinion may have eliminated the regulatory distinction between DVRs as devices and DVR as a service. The bad news may be that to reach this decision, the Second Circuit had to override a lot of adverse precedent, and legal eagles and industry watchers like ABI Research are uncertain whether other Circuits will find this latest court’s arguments entirely convincing — and to what extent Cablevision will undertake any initial rollout.

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