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Cablevision: Network DVR In April
Will stop buying physical DVRs by the end of the year...

When discussing the company's new "PC to TV Media Relay" service with Broadband Reports yesterday, Cablevision told us to stay tuned for a looming announcement about the company's network DVR (or RS-DVR) service. As it turns out, we only had to wait a day. Addressing the media during a conference call to discuss Cablevision's latest earnings report, Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge stated that the company will be deploying the network DVR service in April.

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Network DVRs eliminate the need for a traditional set top DVR by storing the content on servers at local Cablevision offices. According to Rutledge, deployment will occur in three phases. At first, users will simply be able to pause live TV, a system Cablevision has been testing in employee homes for some time.

In April, a limited-function network DVR will be deployed, followed up by additional features as the year rolls on. By 2011, the traditional Cablevision DVR will be dead. "By year-end we intend to cease buying physical DVRs as we begin deploying our network-based DVR solution throughout our footprint," Rutledge stated on the call.

Rutledge didn't offer any hints as to pricing, but Cablevision has previously stated that the service would offer users around 160 gigabytes worth of storage, with prices somewhere around $9.95 a month.

Cable operators have long dreamed of remote storage DVRs, but the road toward deployment has been littered with legal battles with the entertainment industry. Cablevision conducted a 1,000 person trial of a network DVR service in 2006 that worked essentially the same way as a traditional DVR -- except that 80 hours of video content were stored on Cablevision servers.

But then Cablevision was sued by the entertainment industry (GE, NBC, CBS, Walt Disney, ABC; and others), who, fearing a loss of ad revenue and control, claimed the system violated broadcast and copyright laws. In 2007, a Federal judge ruled against Cablevision, preventing Cablevision from broader deployment. Cablevision won subsequent legal rounds, and last summer the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, granting Cablevision the green light to deploy the service.