Time Warner to Block Series 3 TiVos

Friday, July 28, 2006

Time Warner has had a very aggressive stance towards the use of DVRs with their content. Along with other production studios Time Warner are attempting to sue CableVision for its remote DVR service and now Time Warner have announced that they will NOT be supporting the Series 3 TiVo which is expected very soon.

According to an article on Consumer Fury Time Warner intend not to provide new Cable Cards that will support the Series 3 TiVo. Time Warner gave the following reasoning:

”TiVo devices compete with some of the converters and/or “on-demand” type services Time Warner provide. Like all other businesses, video service providers are under no obligation to assist or support their competition.”

However according to the Code of Federal Regulations cable operators must provide cable cards for all certified devices and if Time Warner refuses to provide cable cards for Series 3 TiVos then they could be facing legal action. It will be very interesting to see how this pans out.