Say you’re watching a program you’ve recorded on the DVR in your living room, but you’d really rather see it on the Television in your bedroom. If you subscribe to AT&T’s U-verse video service, you’ll soon be able to do it with the touch of a couple buttons — even if you only have a DVR on one TV.
U-verse added multi-room DVR to its service last week in some areas around San Francisco last week. It will be available nationally by year’s end. Verizon has offered similar functionality with its Fios video service for two years, but most cable and satellite companies don’t offer it yet.
As someone who only owns one TV, I’m not personally excited by the feature, but Bloomberg has found evidence that other consumers are considerably more enthusiastic:
More than 10 percent of customers would switch to a new TV provider to get a multiroom DVR, according to a July survey by research firm Parks Associates.
Consumers were more enthusiastic about switching providers to get a multiroom DVR than most other hypothetical features Parks asked about in the survey, including video games, stated Kurt Scherf, a vice president at the Dallas-based firm. The two features that outranked the DVR: a wide selection of on-demand Television programs, and having caller identification information appear on the Television screen.
All pay Television services are working to expand their on-demand libraries, and Time Warner Cable, among other companies, is working on a caller ID service that’ll pop up on the TV whenever the phone rings.
According to Victor, Verizon is working on a feature that sends caller ID to whatever personal you’re working on — even outside the home — whenever someone calls your home. The system will also let you pick the call up from your computer.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Entries (RSS)