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Dish Network remote access app comes to Android, your Harmony groans
Dish Network took another step towards its ambitious TV Everywhere plans -- not to be confused with Comcast's and Time Warner's TV Everywhere partnership -- by releasing the Android version of its Dish remote access app late last week. This nicely completes the provider's suite of mobile offerings, which have already been available on the iPhone, iPad and certain BlackBerry phones. The catch is that to take advantage of the app, Android users must own a Sling-enabled Dish device like the ViP 722 / 722k HD DVRs or the recently released Sling adapter. With the necessary hardware though, the app turns smartphones into a control freak's best friend, working as a remote control, a DVR manager, and a Sling-powered media streamer to view recorded or live programming over Wi-Fi or 3G. That's a pretty nifty feature set considering it costs a lovely low price of free, and it's certainly more robust than mobile offerings from Comcast, Time Warner, or DirecTV. In other words, when it comes to getting the most from your paid TV service while on the go, it appears the underdog satellite company can certainly dish it out.
Comcast adds Showtime to Xfinity TV online
Almost immediately after expanding its Xfinity TV online services by 150,000 titles, Comcast has announced with Showtime that over 400 hours of the channel's series and movies are now also available via the portal for paying Showtime subscribers. If you aren't keeping Dexter-like tabs on the we-offer-more-content-than-you cable playground banter, this partnership is a first for Showtime and a killer feature for Comcast. In fact, combined with their Starz, Encore, and older HBO and Cinemax online streaming deals, Xfinity TV will now also go down in the annals of history with another first as the only online destination to offer all of the major premium content providers under one cozy URL. As much as we're all for establishing records though, we'd still encourage Comcast to brainstorm on additional ways to keep paying customers -- that is, if it wants to avoid earning another title for losing the most subscribers two quarters in a row.
Big cable loses 500,000 subscribers in Q3, we neglect to send flowers
Last quarter was the first time ever that US pay TV subscription rates were down. Now, according to GigaOM's calculations, big cable suffered another set back in Q3, waving goodbye to over 500,000 subscribers in total. Comcast was saddled with over half of the carnage and lost 275,000 customers, while Time Warner took a 155,000 subscriber hit. Charter Communications and Cablevision fared slightly better, but still added 63,800 and 24,500 respectively to the industry pit of despair. Naturally, the blame game for the poor numbers was aimed squarely at the weak economy and increased competition from over-the-top video providers. Before you call the undertaker away from his wrestling day job, though, remember that cable's traditional backstop is to raise prices for remaining customers -- vicious cycle, anyone? In fact, Comcast shared on its Q3 earnings call that average customer revenue rose by ten percent year over year to $136 a month. Charter's similarly jumped by nine percent to $126, and while Cablevision's didn't increase by the same rate, monthly revenue per customer still amounted to a whopping $149 a month. So whether the reason is cord cutting or simply hard times, it's hard to get worked up over self-inflicted wounds.
