Bad news for Tivo

Yet another major cable player is getting into the PVR game. Cablevision's making clear their intent to get into that market, too. Any why not? The phone companies made a killing off their "vertical features" (Caller ID, and so forth) and they - poor things - had to invest in their networks. If you were a cable company, wouldn't you want to collect another 10 bucks for selling someone else's equipment? The cable companies are on a war path: Invest in Digital Programming to take a body-blow to Satellite-TV, pursue Voice-Over-IP to take a swipe at the Baby Bells, install big-hard-drives in their customers' homes to change the way they watch TV (the PVRs) and then sell out to eager venture capitalists. Yes, it's true, interest is back - and this time, it's the one's with the networks who'll win.

(And don't discount Scientific Atlanta either - somebody has to make the glorified hard-drives.)