PVR Wire

You may be aware that TiVo sued Echostar over infringing patents relating to the technology behind its PVRs. TiVo won and the court ruled that TiVo would get $88 million in damages and also Echostar would have to stop selling and using infringing PVRs.

Bit it wasn't over and Echostar appealed and was awarded some breathing space for the time being and then later requested more time to get certain documents together. The case has now got progressively more complex but I've tried to make sense of it the best I can.

The U.S. District Court Judge Duffey is now getting very frustrated with Echostar for not getting these documents in on time. It's rare for a court to give a company an extended time for appeal and Echostar is really dragging its heals in the mud and as a result is rubbing the courts up the wrong way.

Judge Duffey has now ordered that Echostar must now get the documents together by February 15th.

If all this legal mumbo jumbo is leaving your head hurting let me just conclude that the outlook still looks good for TiVo and Echostar is in for a tough ride.

If all that TV isn't enough for you then DirecTV has launched Game Lounge, a bunch of simple but fun games to play on your TV using your DirecTV remote control. While this isn't exactly an Xbox 360 or Wii it's got a few classic games to pass the time with your family and friends.

Not all DirecTV boxes and remote controls can get Game Lounge just yet but to find out if you can just tune into channel 110 and press the blue button. You can preview any game for free with a monthly Game Pass costing $5.99 a month or get a single game pass for $1.95.

DirecTV are also talking about interactive "Plus" games which are designed to play with PVRs only and plays from your PVR's hard drive. These will apparently be coming sometime soon.

This isn't really the sort of thing I would be interested in, but anyone who likes killing time playing solitaire, suduko, puzzles and that sort of thing will probably love it. Still I'd rather play them for free on the internet.

If you got a fancy new high definition television set the past holiday season, but still haven't found the ideal way to feed it some HD content Dish Network may be the company for you.

They're offering new subscribers a free high definition ViP622 DVR which was given a 8.7 Editor's Choice award by Cnet.

Dish is calling this offer the first HD DVR to be offered for free in the satellite industry.

I can't verify if that's actually the case, but regardless if it's the first of the seventh, the promise of a free HD DVR is worth looking into.

Getting the free ViP622 appears to be as easy as signing up for the HD package we mentioned earlier during a post about the new Dish Advantage Package.

Go make your new TV happy.

If you're a Dish Network subscriber or are interested in becoming one, the company announced a new DVR package that might interest you.

Effective February 1st, they'll be offering a new plan called the DishDVR Advantage Package to new and current subscribers.

For a reasonable cost of $49.99, customers will recieve 200 stations with local channels, a dual-tuner standard definition receiver, and an 18 month home protection plan (tech support, free equipment replacement, free installation upon moving, etc).

Those craving High Definition programming can also get in on the act. For an addtional $20, customers will get a VIP622 DVR and 30 HD channels along with local HD channels where available.

This is a great deal for current customers looking to upgrade their existing packages but it's much sweeter for new customers who will be able to realize an additional $100 in savings for the standard definition option or $200 in savings for the HD option via a mail-in redemption form.

The savings are spread out so you're effectively paying $39.99 or $49.99 for the respective plans during the first 10 months of your service. Before the discount consumers will save approximately 7% compared to purchasing all these items a la carte.

The DISH Network is rumored to be soon announcing an IPTV service. DISH already has the IPTV section of its website ready but empty.

SatelliteGuys.us is reporting the DISH IPTV service will offer SD and HD quality movies, music, adult programs and entertainment news and it will also offer other services such as Cinema Now.

Some of the content will be free while others may incur a one time or monthly charge. Download to own movies and TV shows can be stored on your hard drive but not copied to other storage devices.

This news may push TiVo to announce its own video download service which I'm sure is in the pipeline.

CrunchGear is reporting that EchoStar is set to launch some sort of device that will let users archive content recorded on their Dish Netowrk PVRs. Allegedly, you'll be able to have a "virtually unlimited" number of stored programs.

It's not clear if this is some sort of online network storage product or a system for copying recordings onto your PC hard drive.

Any way you look at it, EchoStar could use some good news. This weekend, as many as 900,000 EchoStar subscribers will lose access to ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox signals, with EchoStar under a court order to cease offering distant signal channels. EchStar has signed a deal with National Programming Service, which could allow some customers to recieve network channels from outside of their broadcast area.

In yet another incremental blow in the patent battle between TiVo and EchoStar, the satellite company's request for a retrial has been denied.

In April, a U.S. District Court jury found that EchoStar's personal video recorders violated TiVo's patent for a system to record one program while watching another. EchoStar was ordered to stop selling PVRs, but that order was stayed while EchoStar appeals the decision.

Monday's announcement does not mean that the appeal has been rejected. Rather, EchoStar had asked for the verdict in the first trial to be thrown out, and for the case to be tried over again. But the judge ruled that EchoStar has failed to show evidence that the trial was flawed and should be represented.

I reported last week that Echostar's DISH Network had received a higher than expected subscriber growth for the third quarter of this year. The company added 295,000 net new subscribers ended the period with an approximate total 12.755 million subscribers.

Echostar has also reported a total revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30 which is a 16% increase compared to $2.13 billion for the corresponding period last year.

Echostar's net income has decreased to $140 for the quarter compared to $209 million during last year's third quarter. However, last year's number did includ a non-recurring, non-cash benefit of about $73 million to recognize the tax benefits of previously reported tax losses.

Echostar are feeling happy and optimistic about the results. EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen said the company's gross and net subscriber gains were the most the company has done in a quarter for some time.

At the beginning of the month Echostar and DirecTV were both receiving criticism that they would start to show signs of losing out to cable providers bundling television, high-speed Internet and telephone services together.

However, despite the criticisms both companies have received relatively good news. Echostar has reported a stronger than expected subscriber growth for the third quarter, while DirecTV has had a slower subscriber growth, but generated more income per subscriber.

Echostar saw a 2% increase in its share price as a result of the news and DirecTV saw a rise of 5.2%. It appears that the two companies are not on the slow down just yet.

Since around mid-July DirecTV's share price has risen by over 30% and Echostar's share price has also risen by 12%. This has been strongly pushed by reports of the two companies merging.

In case you've lost your place, once upon a time, TiVo sued EchoStar, saying EchoStar's personal video recorders infringed on TiVo's patents. TiVo won in court, but EchoStar went and filed its own patent infringement suit against TiVo.

EchoStar's countersuit is on hold, but there still hasn't been a resolution in the original suit. Back in August, a federal court had ordered EchoStar to stop selling and supporting PVRs within 30 days, but that ruling was put on hold pending appeal.

Whew, got all that? Well you might not need to be able to sort it all out, because it looks like TiVo and EchoStar could be close to a settlement.

The appeals court has put the case on hold for 14 days, pending "disposition of final post judgement motion in district court," which probably means some sort of a settlement.

TiVo (TIVO) stock dropped by 11% today to close at $6.67, following an appeals court ruling that allows EchoStar (DISH) to continue selling PVR units.

As mentioned earlier today by Chris, TiVo and Echostar had been locked in a patent battle; TiVo claimed that Dish Network PVRs used technology that infringed on TiVo patents, and in April a federal jury ruled in favor of TiVo. EchoStar was ordered to pay close to $90 million in damages, and to stop selling PVRs.

An appeals court temporarily blocked the injunction preventing EchoStar from selling video recorders, and on Monday, that injunction was permanently lifted.

EchoStar stock rose by about $.6 today to close at $32.13.

Here's an interesting video I found on Youtube, which appears to be a guy who calls himself Matt Web -- apparently taken during a job interview for the position of market support representative for Verizon Wireless. In the interview, he is performing a role-play to sell DirecTV and DishTV subscriptions.

As soon as I started watching this, I began to feel like I was getting the typical sales pitch. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see what the potential sales rep has to say. Being in an interview, the guy seemed to be a little nervous but steadied out after a minute or so.

About halfway through the clip, he talks briefly about the PVRs which come as part of the DirecTV and Dish subscription, although I really think he undersells how great PVRs really are.

Interestingly, when asked about the difference between DirecTV and Dish, the rep started talking about how "DirecTV does not require a background credit check" but Dish does; an interesting unique selling point to convey to users.

The TiVo-Echostar patent battle is far from over. Early on this year TiVo attempted to sue Echostar over patent infringements and won.

As a result, the court ordered Dish to disable and stop selling its PVRs within 30 days of the order. However, Echostar were quick to appeal the decision and put forward a case to the US Court of Appeals.

The court has now decided that Echostar has a substantial case for appeal and stated that the injunction to disable and stop selling its PVRs will not remain in effect during the appeal process.

Echostar can breathe a sigh of relief, but this is just another thorn in the foot for TiVo who just can't seem to get this one in the bag. TiVo however remain confident that the court will rule in its favor.

DVR playground has a good head to head comparison between the PVRs provided by Dish Network and DirecTV.

The basic conclusion is that when it comes to standard definition or high definition PVRs, each company offers fairly comparable service.

The Dish Network boxes have a few extra features, like the ability to deliver content to two separate TVs in separate rooms without the need for an additional receiver, and the ability to watch two programs at once using picture-in-picture technology.

But the DirecTV PVRs include 14 days of program guide data, compared with Dish's 9, and 90 minutes of buffering for live TV, compared with Dish's 60.

The article doesn't delve too deeply into the user interfaces. With DirecTV ending its relationship with TiVo, it'll be interesting to see what kind of reception the new HR20-700 recorder gets when compared with the high-end TiVo Series3.

With all the news of TiVo's victory of EchoStar in Court, and the judge's order that EchoStar may or may not soon have to cease selling PVRs, you may have forgotten that EchoStar filed its own patent infringement suit against TiVo last year.

Well, in another big win for TiVo, the federal courts have ordered a stay on that lawsuit until the patents in question can be reexamined.

Specifically, EchoStar had claimed that TiVo and Humax were violating patents for "Interruption Tolerant Video Program Viewing," "Multimedia Direct Access Storage Device and Formatting Method." EchoStar's original complaint had alleged two other patent infringements, but it's not clear from today's announcement what the status will be of those patent challenges.

In a press release distributed this morning, Tivo said " TiVo will continue to defend its technology vigorously and will not be intimidated by claims such as those EchoStar asserted against TiVo -- claims EchoStar asserted in response to TiVo's successful suit against EchoStar."

No word yet from EchoStar's press room. But in other legal news, EchoStar announced a settlement to a 9-year legal battel with ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox over distribution of local network affiliates.The satellite provider will expand its local network channel offerings from 165 to 175 markets by the end of the year, which will cover 95% of the U.S. The company will also pay affiliates $100 million to help ensure the stations can continue to offer local channels to subscribers outside of the local market.