This just in… TiVo won their patent infringement case versus Echostar! Once the dust settles and more details emerge, I’ll update this post. Update 1: The Wall Street Journal, AP, and Bloomberg are reporting the award is $74 million. I haven’t found out yet what this means for current Dish DVR units. Apparently the judge … Read more
Huge, huge news! While not unexpected given DTV’s slow start in transitioning customers off to TiVo and the associated expenses, this is very good news for both TiVo as a company and for DirecTV TiVo customers. The original agreement was set to expire in about a year, at which point TiVo would have stopped providing … Read more
To recap: TiVo has sued Echostar for infringing on their “time warping” patent. After a delay last fall, the trial finally began about two weeks ago. Echostar has focused their defense on Dish DVR’s technical variations (“media switch“) while TiVo has been playing the role of David (versus Goliath) and is seeking $87 million in … Read more
As many of you know, the next two weeks are critical in determining TiVo Inc’s future. If they are able to prevail in defending their “time warp” patent versus Dish Network, with court proceedings beginning today, TiVo should be able to work out royalty arrangements with other DVR providers – in or out of the … Read more
Let’s face it… if you’re a journalist, bashing TiVo is good for business. Very few companies inspire the cult-like loyalty and name recognition (a small player like) TiVo enjoys. There’s nothing like a negatory article to energize the masses. That could explain why every few months both the Motley Fool and Phillip Swann of TV … Read more
Echostar’s DISH satellite launch has been rescheduled for tomorrow. As I posted earlier, the ocean launch will be webcast live. Supposedly this new satellite will provide DISH with additional bandwidth to expand their HD offerings… but I’m just interested in seeing the rocket take off. Sea Launch says: After a halt in the countdown for … Read more
Echostar plans to expand DISH Network bandwidth with Wednesday’s launch of satellite X. Adding an extra satellite doesn’t really impress me, but I am intrigued by the launch details. As with DirecTV and XM, Echostar has enlisted Sea Launch’s Odyssey platform — a vessel that motors out to sea for launch. Sea Launch will be … Read more
On Malik reports EchoStar (aka DISH Network) has participated in the current round of Sling Media funding. Combined with Echostar’s investment in Archos, there’s a high potential for synergistic devices. I give them credit for aggressively investing in these unproven, peripheral technologies… then again, maybe that’s what a #2 needs to do in order to … Read more