LONDON—Scandinavian communications company and mobile network operator Telia Norway is deploying new optimization technology from Synamedia to reduce the cost of using the cloud for its Time-Shift TV (TSTV) and cloud-based digital recorder cDVR by up to 95%, Synamedia said today.

Developed with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Synamedia’s new technology is designed to change the way video is sent to and from the cloud, which dramatically cuts the cost of TSTV and cDVR services, the company said.

Telia went live with Synamedia’s cDVR recording solution in the third quarter of 2023 using a hybrid cloud model that includes AWS for common copy recordings. It also deployed Synamedia’s TSTV services for more than 200 channels in September 2023, using a hybrid mixture of on-premises and cloud services for control of live content, including restart and catch-up, it said.

“The combination of cloud expertise and technologies from Synamedia and AWS is formidable. With the development of these new optimization technologies, the team went far beyond our expectations to deliver results that don’t just simply illustrate how we are a trailblazer but will be the envy of the TV sector,” said Stein Ivar Nilsen, video acquisition and distribution manager at Telia.

More information is on the company’s website.

LOS ANGELES—The ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA) took an important first step on the path to making ATSC 3.0-enabled digital video recorders and other devices a reality with the release of a DVR specification to licensees of its content protection technology.

“For the past year, we’ve been working in consultation with several electronics companies who are developing devices designed to add new features for NextGen TV viewers, from simple DVRs to more advanced home networking systems,” said A3SA managing director Ron Wheeler. “After considering the various home scenarios, A3SA is pleased to release detailed specifications that will guide companies and soon provide consumers with a wealth of new options for digital video recording and more.”

The new specifications will make it possible for CE companies to develop new 3.0 recording devices for home networks, an A3SA announcement said.

The A3SA approval covers both specs and rules for devices other than DVRs, including home gateways to stream 3.0 content on home networks, it said.

The spec was developed in consultation with manufacturers and with extensive subsystem prototyping. It supports multiple product architectures from single component to systems that have devices distributed across a home network, it said.

The DVR spec works in concert with A3SA’s Broadcaster Encoding Rules covering how broadcasters use its security technology with 3.0 content that is simulcast with corresponding ATSC 1.0 content, it said.

The spec supports in-home streaming to Android, Fire, Roku, WebOS and Tizen and other platforms used to watch content. Support for iOS devices is in process. It also supports dynamic memory provisioning for media playback, it said.

More information is available on the ATSC website. 

Information on Broadcaster Encoding Rules is available online.

Sling TV’s free ad-supported streaming platform Sling Freestream has quietly begun offering users a free DVR. 

Viewers who register for Sling Freestream get a free DVR that allows them to record up to 10 hours of programming. 

The DVR also allows them to fast forward and rewind through content and to record multiple programs simultaneously. 

The Sling Freestream service offers over 300 FAST channels and is available via the Sling App on many major devices, including Apple TV, Roku, Comcast, Vizio, Samsung and LG. 

The upgrade was first reported on Cord Cutter News. 

Further details are available here. 

Tablo TV, one of the few DVRs available in the U.S. market for over-the-air TV broadcasts, has announced its latest version, which, despite what many had hoped, does not include support for ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV).

In 2022, Tablo TV’s parent company, Nuvyyo launched the Tablo ATSC 3.0 QUAD HDMI DVR for NextGenTV, shortly before it was acquired by station group E W Scripps. The product, however, never made it to the market due to issues over digital rights management, according to the company.

“When we announced the Tablo ATSC 3.0 QUAD OTA DVR in January of this year, we felt confident that our stated spring 2022 delivery date was achievable,” the company said in December. “However, since that time, broadcast station ownership groups have indicated their intent to encrypt ATSC 3.0 signals using Digital Rights Management (DRM).

"To ensure that the Tablo ATSC 3.0 QUAD OTA DVR can display and record ATSC 3.0 content, even when broadcast signals are encrypted, we need to complete the development and certification of DRM software for the device," the company added. “DRM decryption keys MUST be installed on the Tablo during manufacturing and cannot be added via later firmware updates. Because of this, manufacturing has been delayed while we confirm the certification requirements, add DRM capabilities to the product, and obtain certification from the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA).”

Announcing the latest version this week, It looks like consumers will have to wait a bit longer for a 3.0-compatible Tablo TV, according to a spokesman. 

"The fourth-generation Tablo device is optimized for the ATSC 1.0 broadcast standard. We're excited about forthcoming Tablo devices that will take advantage of the 3.0 standard,” said Bo Schuerman, Scripps vice president of enterprise strategy. “We are currently working with the ATSC 3.0 groups to ensure Tablo (and other recording devices) will be compliant and work with the new content protection standards that are part of ATSC 3.0."

Regarding the ATSC 3.0 QUAD HDMI DVR, the company said that although there is no estimated time when the device will be available, “significant progress is being made.”

The fourth generation, announced this week, features a more compact design, dual ATSC 1.0 tuners and 50 hours of HD storage and the ability to record FAST channels.  It's priced at $99.95 with no subscriptions or contracts and is avaiable at tablotv.com and bestbuy.com. The Tablo Total System, which includes a 35-mile indoor TV antenna, is on sale for $109.95 (MSRP $129.95) . 

Scripps acquired Canada-based consumer technology manufacturer Nuvyyo, Inc. in 2022 for $14 million. Nuvyyo has successfully developed and sold antenna TV DVRs under the Tablo brand for nine years.

KANATA, Canada—Tablo has built off of its Tablo Dual HDMI DVR that it released in 2020 and officially unveiled the new Tablo Quad HDMI OTA DVR that is able to record up to four programs simultaneously.

The new Tablo DVR has the same form factor as the dual-tuner model, but features four ATSC 1.0 tuners. It also comes with its own remote and a direct HDMI connection to the TV, allowing for a more traditional DVR setup, Tablo says.

Unique features for the Tablo Quad HDMI include the ability to record and display OTA TV in raw MPEG2 video format at the resolution bitrate that it is broadcast in, including 1080i at 30 fps and 720p at 60 fps. Tablo says that this would allow for 130 hours of HDTV to be recorded onto a 1 TB drive, though larger hard drives can be connected to the Tablo Quad HDMI.

For users with a TV Guide Data Service subscription, Tablo Quad HDMI can stream live and recorded TV on up to four secondary TVs in a home. This can be done by downloading the Tablo app on streaming set-top boxes or smart TVs running Roku, Amazon Fire TV or Android TV.

The Tablo Quad HDMI OTA DVR is now available for $199.99. For more information, visit www.tablotv.com.  

DALLAS—AT&T TV has announced new features that will expand its users' capability to watch content—increasing the number of possible simultaneous streams to 20 and offering an option for unlimited hours of cloud DVR.

AT&T TV had previously allowed customers to have three simultaneous streams. Based on customer feedback, AT&T TV will now allow customers to have as many as 20 simultaneous streams going at no additional cost and no action required. 

There are some restrictions to the increase in simultaneous streams—some networks are excluded, like Fox networks, Starz, NHL Network, Showtime and PBS; and customers can still only stream on three devices out-of-home.

The now unlimited cloud DVR will be available to subscribers of the 500 hours of cloud DVR package automatically. Customers that do not have an annual contract get 20 hours of storage included, with the option to upgrade to unlimited storage capacity for $10/month. Recordings can also be accessed from outside the home via the AT&T TV app.

Recordings in the unlimited DVR storage do expire after 90 days. In a series recording, a max of 30 episodes can be stored (oldest deleted first).

For more information, visit www.att.com. 

CHANDLER, Ariz.—Channel Master, a manufacturer of over-the-air TV products, has announced it has entered into an exclusive, strategic agreement with TiVo to offer its DVR technology for OTA antenna users.

As part of the partnership, Channel Master will begin providing the 500GB TiVo Edge DVR this summer. TiVo’s Edge device is designed for antennas and will have the same functions and features of its 2TB predecessor, including voice control, recommendations across live and streaming content, 4K UHD, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision HDR.

“One of the first things cord cutters discover is that they really need a DVR for the TV antenna in order to have the traditional viewing experience that they had with cable, and TiVo DVRs provide a premium solution for that need,” said Mike Lynch, chief strategy officer at Channel Master.

Lynch says that in addition to recording live TV, the Edge can integrate major streaming services, including Netflix, YouTube and Hulu into its interface.

For more information, visit www.channelmaster.com.  

NEW YORK—When “M*A*S*H” aired its final episode, a reported 106 million people tuned in to watch it live. Those sort of numbers are highly unlikely to ever be repeated again, but according to a new Nielsen report, just because viewers aren’t watching a show at its initial airing doesn’t mean it isn’t generating strong numbers.

Live sports remains one of the remaining programming options that retains a high level of viewership at airing, but with DVR capabilities abound, viewers for genres like primetime dramas or sitcoms often wait to watch at a time convenient for them.

“When the media industry … considers defining a hit in measurement terms, it’s crucial that the full viewing audience is considered,” Nielsen wrote in its summary.

According to Nielsen’s report, in the first quarter of 2019, U.S. adults 18 and over spent nearly four hours each week watching delayed, or time-shifted, viewing. When they would turn in could range from slightly delayed on the same day to more than seven days after the initial airing.

Looking closely at the beginning part of the 2018 television season (Oct. 1-Dec. 30, 2018), traditional viewing beyond live or same day out to 35 days provided a 10% lift in viewing for programs, an average of 2.7 million more viewers. For viewers between the ages of 18-49, there is a 14% rise (1.1 million viewers) over the same period.

The genre of the particular program does impact the numbers as well. During that same period, ratings increased 40% for viewing up to 35 days after going live for primetime dramas, 65% higher for the 18-49 age range.

Nielsen concludes that this data can help marketers make sure they reach their full potential audience.

In a move that will get TiVo out of the hardware-making business, the company announced that it has signed a “major” device manufacturer to serve as its direct-to-consumer box partner.

Tied in, this partner, yet unnamed, will also take over retail sales of TiVo products outside of TiVo.com, including outlets such as Amazon and Best Buy, Enrique Rodriguez, TiVo’s president and CEO, said Thursday on the company’s Q1 earnings call.

TiVo, he explained, won’t produce or contract directly for the manufacturing of TiVo’s retail devices, but will secure the volumes needed from its new partner for sales made via TiVo.com.

“In that sense, we’re acting as a distribution channel,” Rodriguez said. With respect to sales through other retail channels, “we’d be completely out of that transaction.”

[Read: Amazon Deploys Download TV Service With TiVo]

For consumers, there will be no material change, as products will continue to be branded as TiVo and run the TiVo experience, he added.

TiVo has already made a similar move on its MSO partnership business, as its software and experience have been ported to devices made by Arris.

On the MSO front, TiVo has completely transitioned out of the hardware business, as Q1 was the last with MSO hardware revenue, as TiVo has completed fulfillment of orders made last year, Rodriguez said.

On the software front, Rodriguez reiterated that TiVo’s new platform, TiVo Experience 4, was released to the retail market in Q4 2017, and is becoming broadly available to MSO customers this quarter. In the MSO realm, TiVo is using that new platform to help partners embark on IPTV transitions and as a catalyst to migrate MSOs from legacy Rovi guides to the higher-end TiVo experience.

Service Electric Cable TV is already on board, as is RCN Corp., which will be the first to roll out an IPTV service using TiVo Experience 4 using an Android TV device. Mediacom Communications recently renewed and extended its deal with TiVo.

TiVo is also preparing to launch a new advertising product that provides sponsored, in-guide recommendation results for relevant programming. A mid-tier MSO with coverage across “multiple, large DMAs” is signed on to deploy this on mobile devices and set-top boxes, Rodriguez said.

That capability will be deployed within TiVo’s personalized content discovery suite, he added, noting that it enables TiVo’s anonymous viewership data to be matched with other anonymous first- and third-party information.

TiVo had no new detail to share about its ongoing exploration of alternatives aimed at driving shareholder value that could include M&A or taking the company private.

That process is ongoing, though TiVo expects to be ready to provide an update when it announced Q2 results, Rodriguez said.

There’s also no significant movement with respect to TiVo’s ongoing litigation with Comcast.

“Getting a license [with Comcast] remains one of our top priorities,” Rodriguez said, holding that he’s “confident” that Comcast will eventually come to terms.

TiVo posted Q1 revenues of $189.83 million, down 7.7% year-over-year, driven by drops in its legacy TiVo solutions IP licenses and hardware line items.

TiVo, which merged with Rovi in the fall of 2016, said it reached its goal of realizing $100 million in integration synergies, and expects to complete its extended goal of $110 million by the end of Q2.

ENGLEWOOD, COLO.—AirTV, a subsidiary of Dish that’s focused on products for pay TV cord-cutters, has released a “Local Channels DVR” beta for the Android TV-powered AirTV Player that enables users to record shows from over-the-air broadcast TV channels.

The free beta, open to all AirTV Player customers, requires that customers purchase and connect an external storage device to record OTA channels from broadcasters such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. That feature adds to Sling TV’s in-app Cloud DVR service. Dish’s Sling TV OTT TV service has been integrated with the AirTV Player, a product that was introduced in January 2017, but a subscription to Sling TV is not required for the Local Channels DVR offering.

The beta for the AirTV Player also includes an integrated DVR menu, with recorded OTA content appearing in the same menu as Sling TV Cloud DVR recordings. AirTV Player users can record one show at a time and set single-episode or series recordings via the menu.

The DVR beta is emerging as Dish’s AirTV unit faces off with competitors, including Channel Master, Nuvyyo/Tablo and TiVo, that have also developed OTA/OTT combo devices tailored for cord-cutters.

AirTV recommends several storage devices, such as the SanDisk Ultra 128 GB Thumb Drive, SanDisk Cruzer Glide 64 GB and 128 GB Thumb Drive, Western Digital My Passport or Easy Store 1 TB Hard Drive, and Seagate Expansion 500 GB Hard Drive. AirTV also notes that while USB thumb drives work for recording and playback, a hard drive is recommended for “optimal performance.”

AirTV also lists out several limitations for the new DVR beta. Among them, recordings are not playable until the program has completely finished recording (though users can continue to each the channel live as the recording is being made); recordings canceled before completion of the program will not be saved to the DVR; and recordings are only viewable via the AirTV Player where the recordings were made (i.e. they can’t be transferred to another device or played back on another AirTV Player), and rescanning for local channels will also remove all future recordings.

[AirTV Player First Product From AirTV]

"AirTV continuously pushes to meet consumer demand for a better cord cutting and OTA experience," Mitch Weinraub, director of product development for AirTV, said in a statement. “With the introduction of Local Channels DVR and the existing Sling TV Cloud DVR on AirTV Player, customers can now watch and record both OTA and OTT programs, imitating traditional pay-TV for a fraction of the cost."

Update: Dish confirmed that the new DVR beta program is only for the AirTV Player, and not for a newer AirTV box that was soft-launched late last year that lets users access and stream OTA TV channels in and out of the home.

This story originally appeared on TVT's sister publication Multichannel News.   

DURHAM, N.H.—“In 2005, 25 percent of cable subscribers had ever used VOD, 8 percent of all households had a DVR, and about 4 percent of households subscribed to Netflix’s DVD-by-mail movie delivery service,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst of Leichtman Research Group, said. Oh how the times have changed, as indicated by the “On-Demand TV XIV” report from LRG. According to the report, 81 percent of U.S. households now have either a DVR or Netflix, or use on-demand from a cable or Telco provider.

Based on a survey of 1,214 U.S. households, the report of those households that use one of the services, 30 percent use two of the services, while 13 percent use all three. Of those, 57 percent of households get a subscription video-on-demand service from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and/or Hulu. Overall, 48 percent of adults stream any of these services on a monthly basis.

SVOD services are most popular among the 18-24 age group, according to the report, with 77 percent using it on a monthly basis; those numbers drop to 63 percent for those 25-44, 50 percent for 45-54, and 23 percent for 55 and older. As many as 37 percent of all adults stream Netflix weekly, up from 8 percent in 2010.

There has also been a growth of homes with DVRs in since 2010, with 64 percent of homes owning one, compared to 45 percent in 2010.

In terms of on-demand, 74 percent of all Telco video subscribers and 61 percent of all cable subscribers have ever used VOD from their current provider, with 51 percent of all cable subscribers using it in the past month. In 2010, the number of cable subscribers to use VOD in the month prior was 34 percent.

The 81 percent of U.S. households with a DVR, Netflix, or that are using VOD, is a five point increase from last year (76 percent) and 11 points from two years ago (70 percent).

To see the full report from LRG, please click here.