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US appellate court upholds order blocking DirecTV ads
The seesaw match between DirecTV and Time Warner (parent company of AOL, which owns Engadget) over those blasted "superior HD" spots has reached another milestone, as a US appeals court has "upheld a lower court's decision that prohibits the satellite television operator from airing advertisements that claim superior service in markets where Time Warner Cable operates." Notably, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit did, however, "set aside part of the lower court's order, saying the way it had been worded could be construed to prohibit the unfavorable comparison of even Time Warner Cable's analog programming." Ah well, it's not like those ads were exceedingly enthralling to begin with, right?
Time Warner partners with FON, customers to get free WiFi
Just like it has in so many other instances, Fon has coaxed yet another company into signing the line, and this time it's Time Warner (parent company of AOL, which owns Engadget) taking the bait. While the two firms had been in talks for some time regarding a potential partnership, today the duo made things official by announcing that "Time Warner Cable subscribers could become Fon community members and create Fon access points via their home or business broadband connection." Additionally, "the same subscribers would enjoy free WiFi access around the world, wherever Fon has partner ISPs," but the bulk of said partners sadly aren't found on American soil. Still, you won't find us bickering about free internet access, but for those anxious to hear details about this endeavor, it sounds like they'll be testing your patience; there was no word as to how soon TWC customers would be able to join the Fon bonanza, but we're sure that bombarding your local office with these inquiries could get the ball rolling.
DirecTV 1 - Time Warner Cable 1
You know those DirecTV ads featuring Doc Brown from the Back to the Future films that state DirecTV will soon have three times as many HD stations as cable. (if not, countinue through for the video) Time Warner Cable didn't like the last statement of the commercial spot so much so, that the cable operator took DirecTV to court - again. This is the second time Time Warner has turned to the legal system over a DirecTV ad. The first was for a DirecTV commercial claiming that their HD signal was better then cables - DirecTV was ordered to stop those ads in Time Warner markets. This time though, it didn't turn out the way Time Warner wanted as the judge ruled in favor of DirecTV thanks to the word "soon." Despite claims that cable systems can soon carry 200 HD stations, Time Warner didn't provide the court with enough data showing satellite couldn't, in theory, provide more HD stations "soon." Time will only tell if DirecTV will hold true in their claim of 100 HD stations by year end though and truth be told, that's all we care about. [The DirecTV commercial after the jump]
Sinclair & Time Warner make a deal on HD, Mediacom still on the outs
Sinclair and Time Warner have finally reached an agreement that will let the cable provider broadcast HDTV signals from Sinclair-owned affiliate stations. We've been getting reports from HDTV owners in Ohio, Wisconsin and other areas that Sinclair owned stations are showing up in all their HD glory -- too late for the BCS National Championship and last year's Super Bowl -- but better late than never. Still ongoing is the broadcaster's Iowa-centered battle with Mediacom, where affected stations have been dropped entirely from the cable lineup pending an agreement between the two companies. After coming to a "mutually acceptable economic agreement" four year agreement with TW, we'll see if Sinclair and Mediacom work things out, the FCC gets involved, or if this tiff continues to drag on interminably.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Read - High-def versions of Channels 18 and 24 finally coming to cableRead - Sinclair Announces Analog and Digital Carraige Agreement with Time Warner CableRead - Lawmakers tell Mediacom, Sinclair to settle
Samsung launches HL-S5686C iDCR DLP TV, TWC goes OCAP
Although last year's lovefest with OCAP was short lived after CES concluded, it seems that we're actually seeing the fruits of Samsung, Time Warner, and Advance/Newhouse Communications' labor towards getting OCAP in the home. Today Samsung unveiled its OpenCable-compliant HL-S5686C iDCR DLP HDTV alongside Time Warner's shiny new SMT-H3050 HD set-top box (for folks without the aforementioned set), and the group announced that "interactive digital cable services are now live" in TWC's New York City systems. Furthermore, the cable provider stated that it would soon embark on the expansion pathway, blazing trails to get the goods to Milwaukee, WI and other cities covered by Advance/Newhouse's Bright House Networks cable systems. The new cable services include TWC's OCAP Digital Navigator as well as its in-house-developed interactive program guide, and should be available to interested customers right now in the selected area(s). Moreover, Time Warner is opening up the wonders of OCAP for all to discover as a part of its "Home to the Future" exhibit, which is a four-story interactive installation within the firm's center in NYC's Columbus Circle. So if you're eager to give this OCAP thing a whirl, the newfangled display will be open to the public starting today, and will continue to be for three weeks.
Life/Style IPTV content jumps to WNBC New York
New York's WNBC is well-known for its pioneering attitude towards high definition, and just like it broke new ground by delivering the local news to viewers in crisp HD, the channel is making waves again by offering up made-for-IPTV content on one of its digital channels. Not too long after seeing made-for-mobile content heading to the tube, Life/Style Television, an IPTV channel that caters to "affluent consumers," will soon be making the leap to broadcast television as well. The channel's original series, "LX.TV 1ST/LOOK: NYC," will be beamed out OTA on WNBC 4.4; additionally, cable customers will be able to catch the daily half hour show by tuning in on Time Warner, Comcast, or Cablevision. The program, which will introduce completely new episodes on a weekly basis, will take viewers around various NYC hotspots, and include first-hand experience with "nightlife, restaurants, shopping, kids activities, and fitness and wellness destinations." So if you're anxious to take on the city, but don't exactly feel like fighting the bustling crowds, you can tune in at 8:00AM, 11:00PM, or 2:00AM to catch the fresh programming.
Liberty Media exchanges shares of News Corp. for DirecTV
While DirecTV tends to garner a lot of negative attention, all the fuss apparently doesn't bother Liberty Media's CEO John Malone, as the firm has recently signed a deal to swap its 16.3-percent stake in News Corp. for "shares of DirecTV, three regional sports networks and $550 million in cash." Liberty, who already controls several other TV networks such as Starz, is hoping to jump back to the forefront of television by assuming News Corp.'s three seats on DirecTV's board of directors. Interestingly, Malone stated that the new investment would "create financial, operating, and strategic flexibility," which could eventually freshen up the previously stale merger talks between DirecTV and Echostar -- but considering Liberty Media still won't have a controlling stake in the company, we're not holding our collective breath.
Time Warner gets fussy with DirecTV over NFL Network coverage
There's nothing like a warm, heartfelt lawsuit to really spread that holiday cheer, and we've got yet another battle in the courtroom about to get cranked up, and this time it's between rivals DirecTV and Time Warner. While TWC still can't claim the ability to offer the fledgling NFL Network on its cable systems, DirecTV felt the need to boast not only about its "superior coverage," but to also rub a little salt in Time Warner's wound by informing folks in NFL towns that games shown on the NFL Network "couldn't be seen" on Time Warner. Although the claims seem somewhat legitimate, Time Warner insists that "all eight games featured on the NFL Network will also be available to local fans over broadcast networks," which apparently wasn't the message being conveyed to pigskin-loving consumers. Regardless, DirecTV dug its hole a tad deeper by hiring Jessica Simpson to state that the firm's HD quality "beats cable," which is quite the laughable statement to anyone familiar with "HD Lite." In the end, however, we're sure the ads will be removed (or at least reworded), and the two firms will continue to bicker in future bouts, but what fun would it be if these two actually decided to get along, right?[Via MultiChannel]
Time Warner gets fussy with DirecTV over "false advertising"
There's nothing like a warm, heartfelt lawsuit to really spread that holiday cheer, and we've got yet another battle in the courtroom about to get cranked up, and this time it's between rivals DirecTV and Time Warner. While TWC still can't claim the ability to offer the fledgling NFL Network on its cable systems, DirecTV felt the need to boast not only about its "superior coverage," but to also rub a little salt in Time Warner's wound by informing folks in NFL towns that games shown on the NFL Network "couldn't be seen" on Time Warner. Although the claims seem somewhat legitimate, Time Warner insists that "all eight games featured on the NFL Network will also be available to local fans over broadcast networks," which apparently wasn't the message being conveyed to pigskin-loving consumers. Regardless, DirecTV dug its hole a tad deeper by hiring Jessica Simpson to state that the firm's HD quality "beats cable," which is quite the laughable statement to anyone familiar with "HD Lite." In the end, however, we're sure the ads will be removed (or at least reworded), and the two firms will continue to bicker in future bouts, but what fun would it be if these two actually decided to get along, right?[Via MultiChannel]
Warner Bros. buys 10% of SCi
Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner (who owns our parent company, Weblogs Inc.) is moving its way back into the gaming development business. Not since the Atari days in the 1980s has Warner held any serious hold in the game development front. Now it would seem that there are changes afoot. Warner Bros. purchased a 10% interest in SCi Entertainment, better known to the world as Eidos, for £44.5 million (roughly $87 million). The new deal will give SCi access to Warner's long list of IPs; the list includes Looney Tunes and Batman. Apart from Batman and possible improved leverage with DC Comics (another Time Warner subsidiary), SCi may want to be careful about overusing the licenses (Harry Potter was, oddly, not mentioned). Looney Tunes, while widely recognized, rarely translates into a quality gaming experience. If SCi can come up with some original content, Warner Bros. can use them for movies, not just a one way benefit.
PS3 will not impact format wars, says Time Warner CEO
The fate of the Blu-ray will not have a big impact by the inclusion of a Blu-ray player in the PlayStation 3, according to Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons. Speaking to an investor conference in New York, Parson called the next-gen DVD format war "unfortunate," remarking that the competing formats -- Blu-ray and HD DVD -- drive costs down and confuse consumers.We don't mind a competition-spurred price reduction in our movies, but we're also hesitant to purchase a next-gen DVD in the event we pick the losing format. Parsons notes that people were more likely to use the PS3 for games -- but if we want to watch high-definition films, at least we know there's a Blu-ray player already in our entertainment center. If the PlayStation 3 becomes a success in hardware sales, might Parsons be underestimating its impact?Time Warner is a media conglomerate that owns Warner Bros., Turner, NewLine, HBO and AOL, our parent company. Warner Bros. currently releases films in both HD DVD and Blu-ray. Sony's decision to put a Blu-ray player in the PS3 has been frequently called a "trojan horse" move to drive sales of Blu-ray discs.[Via Game|Life]
Time Warner expects download-to-burn movies to hit in '07
Good news, folks: Time Warner (disclosure: our parent company's parent company is owned by Time Warner) is facing a future of "download-to-burn" DVD movies with grim determination, and expects said apocalypse to occur sometime in 2007. Sure, a few services have started offering a some movies here and there, most of which have been late, overpriced and plagued with problems, but it sounds like Time Warner is getting ready to do this thing for reals next year, with that fancy new Wal-Mart download service as a potential partner in such doings. Of course, pioneers like Movielink and CinemaNow can't be really blamed for their failures: most of the problems arose from studios like Time Warner practically forbidding them to provide a decent user experience to those potential criminals customers of theirs. The new word is from none other than Richard Parsons, the chief exec and chairman of Time Warner, who says "I expect we will be in a download-to-burn mode in 2007 -- It will be a part of next year's offerings." We'll be waiting to see how well Time Warner fulfills that promise.
Time Warner Ohio subscribers missing the big game...again
Even as most of us get set in front of our HDTVs to watch the very Game of the Century we bought them to watch, Time Warner customers in central Ohio are left frustrated again. Just like during the Super Bowl, due to the ongoing dispute between the cable company and the owner of the local ABC and Fox affiliates, Sinclair Broadcasting. As we're all too familiar with and our good friends in New Orleans recently found out, some affiliates want cable companies to pay up to provide an HD signal to their customers, while the cable co's refuse to pay for what is already available freely over the air. In Ohio, Insight and Wide Open West have made deals with Sinclair to provide HD programming so customers can switch. According to the article, Time Warner has been giving away antennas to interested customers to keep people from switching. Sinclair even plans to start charging to rebroadcast its SD channels, we'll see who blinks first in this standoff or if the FCC somehow steps in.
Time Warner looks to grab 10% of SCI
Media conglomerate Time Warner is looking to purchase a 10 percent stake in developer SCI Entertainment (Tomb Raider, Hitman). According to website The Business, Time Warner initially wanted to buy SCI, but that was lowered to 20% and then halved to 10% of stock.A complete buyout of SCI may be in the plans for the future; Time Warner executives are "preoccupied with a share buyback and the restructuring of AOL," according to the article. (For sake of full disclosure, Time Warner owns AOL owns Weblogs Inc. owns Joystiq.) SCI's Tomb Raider franchise was turned into a film franchise by Paramount Pictures, a rival of Time Warner's movie studio Warner Bros. Pictures. Will there be a conflict of interest should a third Tomb Raider movie materialize? [Via Gamasutra]
TiVo Series 3 coming September 17th for $799?
It's no secret that TiVo's on the verge of shipping its HD-capable Series 3 set-top-box -- after all, the company's already notified the FCC, posted a product page, and even ignited a flurry of controversy over Time Warner's CableCARD policy -- but we have yet to hear of a solid release date or retail price for this highly-anticipated device. Well HDBeat's got an inside source at one of the big box electronics stores (to protect his identity, we won't say which one, but he goes by the name Todd and wears a blue shirt to work) who claims that the Series 3 has already been added to their system, scheduled to be in stock on September 17th for a hefty-but-not-unreasonable $799. (Side note: if that price stands, props to our boy Dave Zatz for prognosticating it many moons ago). You first heard about this box all the way back at CES, recently spotted it in the wild, and now it may finally be time to withhold next month's rent as well as ring up your cable provider to make sure they have those precious CARDs all stocked up.
Ask HDBeat: Is FOX HD carried by Time Warner cable anywhere?
Reader .aCr. writs in to say that he jumped into the HD bandwagon recently and has already discovered it isn't all good. His local Time Warner Cable doesn't offer FOX HD and the NFL season is just around the corner. He wants to know if we've heard any rumors about FOX HD coming to San Antonio (preferably before the NFL kick off) and if Time Warner carries FOX HD in other cities?This is a common question and not always an easy one. You see each cable company has to sign an agreement with each local affiliate in order to make this happen. Some affiliates are owned by large media companies and can refuse to play nice. A perfect example of this is the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair is a bad word on many HD forums and for good reason. To our knowledge they have not signed one agreement to have their HD channel carried anywhere in the country. At one point they were actually asking cable companies to pay for their HD signal which is unheard of. This is really bad considering they own 56 stations in 36 markets and unfortunately for .aCr. San Antonio is one of those markets. The only thing people in these markets can do is to setup a OTA antenna to pick up the HD version of these channels.Does Sinclair have a station in your market and is it carried by your local cable or satellite company?
Cable giants being sued for VOD patent infringement
If nothing else, you've got to admire the tenacity of a Connecticut-based firm called USA Video Interactive, which just days after losing what seems to be a final appeal in its lawsuit against Movielink, decided to go after almost all of the country's major cable operators for supposedly infringing on the same patent. Comcast, Cox, Charter, and Time Warner (disclosure: Time Warner owns the company that owns the network that includes Engadget) are all named in a suit filed Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in Texas by USA Video (maybe Cablevision got spared because of all its other legal woes), which claims that like Movielink, the cable giants are violating its so-called Store-and-Forward Video-on-Demand patent (#5,130,792, filed in 1990) by using protected technology in their own VOD services. Besides making patents, the company also offers various products revolving around email, web tools, digital video watermarking, and content delivery infrastructure, so it's probably not appropriate to bunch it in with other lawsuit-happy -- but seemingly less legitimate -- claimants such as NTP and Visto.[Via TechWeb and Digital Media Thoughts]
More networks suing Cablevision over networked DVR
Trouble is brewing in TV land, and the stakes couldn't be higher for consumers, as a lawsuit filed by many of your favorite content providers against industry giant Cablevision could determine the future of networked DVR services. Two Time Warner networks (disclaimer: Engadget's parent company's parent company's parent company is Time Warner), CNN and Cartoon Network, have joined Disney, Universal, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox in fighting Cablevision's plan to offer subscribers the option of recording their programming to the company's servers, arguing that allowing at-will remote access to stored content constitutes a re-transmission, and therefore violates copyright agreements. What makes Time Warner's entry into the fray particularly interesting is the fact that another one of its divisions, Time Warner Cable, has publicly expressed interest in the concept of networked DVR, meaning that either outcome of the lawsuit would be potentially beneficial to the company. Way to go guys, you can never go wrong playing both sides of the fence.
U getting Universal HD?
HDBeat reader Chris wrote in this morning to tell us they're getting Universal HD on Time Warner in the Los Angeles area now; I also saw it on my channel lineup last night on Comcast here in Michigan, but we knew that was coming.Oddly, I'm much less excited about watching the Winter Olympics than I am about seeing The Equalizer in high definition. Does anyone know how the show was originally recorded? Apparently all content on Universal is 1080i and not upconverted, but I wouldn't have expected that show to be shot on film.
Columbus cable subscribers can now enjoy ABC and Fox in HD
Sinclair Business Group, a Baltimore-area company that owns several mid-western broadcast stations, has recently reached agreements with Insight Communications and WideOpenWest to allow them to provide their stations in high definition on their cable service. In Columbus however, Time Warner has most of the market and as yet has not reached a deal for their high definition services.The channels now broadcasting: WICS/WICD (ABC 15/ABC 20) in Champaign/Springfield, IL WDKY (FOX 56) in Lexington, KY WYZZ (FOX 43) in Peoria, IL WSYX (ABC 6) and WTTE (FOX 28) in Columbus, OH (WideOpenWest also) WSTR (WB 64) in Cincinnati, OH WKEF (ABC 22) and WRGT (FOX 45) in Dayton, OH WZTV (FOX 17) and WUXP (UPN 30) in Nashville, TN and WMSN (FOX 47) in Madison, WI will also be available on a limited number of Insight cable systems in certain markets. Sinclair indicates they will not reach deals without receiving "adequate consideration", so Time Warner subscribers, you may have those rabbit ears out for a while.
