Cablevision Bows Interactive Search Function

17 Nov, 2009 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Cablevision has launched an interactive tool that allows its iQ TV subscribers via the remote control to more easily find on-demand movies and TV programming.

Pressing the “C” button on the remote control allows customers to use a virtual keypad to enter in search terms and quickly find programming based on a show's title, genre, performers, network or other attributes.

Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision’s iO TV offers customers access to more than 400 channels, including 53 premium movie channels, 46 channels of commercial-free digital music and more than 6,000 titles available on demand.

The cable operator, with three million subscribers, continues to aggressively pursue offering members the ability to control remote access to the digital video recorder (DVR).

Earlier this month Cablevision introduced a mobile version of remote DVR scheduling, giving subscribers the ability to manage their home DVR — including finding and recording shows and managing stored content — from any mobile device with Internet connectivity.

Last summer the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not weigh in on litigation involving Cablevision’s remote-storage digital video recording service.

The decision opened the door for Cablevision to deploy a DVR service that records programming on a remote system internally controlled by the cable operator and not a subscriber’s set-top box.

Unlike TiVo and other cable-based DVR services, Cablevision’s service allows subscribers to record and store programming on the company’s server instead of a set-top box.

In 2006 a group of entertainment studios and TV networks filed a lawsuit against Cablevision alleging that its planned DVR service violated their copyrights.

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