AT&T Overhauls U-Verse DVR; Still Playing Catch-Up To Verizon FiOS, Cable
This story was written by David Kaplan.
With recent expansion of the deal between DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) and TiVo (NSDQ: TIVO), the DVR wars are ramping up. Now, after past struggles, AT&T (NYSE: T) is rolling out what it says is an "enhancement" to its IPTV product U-Verse. The new service, dubbed Total Home DVR, is being made available in the Bay Area first. AT&T plans to hook up the rest of its national subs later this year. Noting that most DVR recordings are limited to a single TV set-top box, AT&T says this service allows recorded shows to be played on any set in a subscriber's home. It also boasts up to 37 hours of high-def content storage space or up to 133 hours of standard content. And users will be able to set the DVR from their PC or cell phone as part of its AT&T Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Web and Mobile Remote Access DVR feature. Release
-- WSJ: At least for the moment, AT&T has a lot of catching up to do against Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and the cable providers. Verizon's FiOS TV service claims 1.4 million subs compared to U-verse's 549,000though AT&T says it expects to top one million subs by the end of the year. The Total Home DVR service will be free as part of a U-verse subscription, which runs from $44 to $99 monthly.
By David Kaplan