Charter Communications launched the TiVo Premiere digital video recorder in its Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, market, and said it will deploy the DVR across its entire footprint over the course of the first half of 2012.
The MSO's TiVo debut comes as DirecTV on Thursday also began offering an HD DVR with TiVo's "classic" interface to subs in 10 markets.
Charter's TiVo DVR will be $20 per month; during a limited promotion period, subscribers can get additional TiVos for $10 per month for 12 months. The MSO originally announced the distribution deal with TiVo in January 2011.
For TiVo, attracting subscribers through operators including Charter and DirecTV is critical to its future. For the quarter ended Oct. 31, TiVo gained 117,000 net subs, thanks to the rollout of a TiVo-based box by the U.K.'s Virgin Media -- its first net gain in more than four years.
Through the TiVo Premiere DVR, Charter subscribers will be able to access regular linear TV plus Charter's video-on-demand service as well as Internet-delivered content including Pandora and YouTube. The DVR provides integrated search across TV, VOD and Web content.
Charter subs can also use the Premiere DVR as a whole-home video solution, to begin a recording in one room, pause it and then pick it up from a TiVo Premiere device in another room.
"We're now providing customers more content options on the device they choose," Charter senior vice president of product and strategy Rich DiGeronimo said. "TiVo Premiere further enhances the customer's overall experience by offering even more control, in addition to seamless access to Charter's deep On Demand library, within an elegant TiVo user interface."
The TiVo Premiere from Charter provides the DVR maker's hallmark features, including Season Pass recordings; WishList searches to find and record programs based on customer-specified interests; personalized ratings; and TiVoToGo, which lets users transfer some programs from the DVR to a laptop, media device, or smartphone for viewing outside the home.
Charter customers will have access to free apps for iPads and iPhones to search, browse and share TV programming. An Android app is expected to be launched in early January 2012. In addition, Charter will enable remote scheduling to let users search and schedule recordings from the Web or from a mobile device.
Charter's TiVo Premiere device will provide up to 45 hours of HD or up to 400 hours of standard-definition programming.
More information on Charter's TiVo Premiere offering is available at www.charter.com/tivo.
