Delivering on many a TV junkie's wish list, Cablevision Systems has rolled out a service that lets subscribers see what's airing on as many as nine of their favorite nine channels on a single screen.
The iO TV Quick Views feature, available for no additional charge, lets digital cable customers create their own personalized mosaics displaying two, six or nine TV channels selecting from more than 140 channels. Subscribers can create up to 20 personalized mosaics per account.
The feature is a customizable version of the Quick View mosaics Cablevision launched in the fall of 2009, with up to nine channels grouped by kids, sports and news programming. Both of those services were developed by Cablevision using the ActiveVideo Networks' CloudTV platform for interactive video applications; the Bethpage, N.Y.-based MSO has launched some 25 applications via ActiveVideo.
Cablevision's personalized iO TV Quick Views are available on channel 600. To help customers get started, the service includes sample pre-set mosaics for news, sports and children's programming, which can be customized.
"Personalized Quick Views on iO TV transforms the viewing experience by allowing our customers to literally create their own customized channels, providing up to 20 real-time displays of the programming that matters most to them," Cablevision senior vice president of video product management Gary Schanman said in a statement. "This innovative service, which is not available from any of our competitors, combines the power of immediately being able to see what's on, scan TV listings and even schedule DVR recordings in a simple and easy-to-use interface."
AT&T U-verse TV offers a similar capability with My Multiview, which lets subscribers watch four channels on the screen at the same time.
Cablevision's iO TV Quick Views lets customers see what's currently airing as well as what's coming up next. Users can select an upcoming program for DVR recording.
While viewing the mosaic, the audio of the highlighted channel box is activated, and customers can select different channels using the Select button on their remote controls. In addition, subscribers can also use Quick Views as a custom channel guide, featuring the entire day's programming from only the favorite channels they have selected.
