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Archive for February, 2008
Tivo Wins EchoStar Lawsuit
February 2nd, 2008 No Comments
A three-judge federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that EchoStar/Dish Network violated Tivo's DVR software patent. Tivo is expected to receive about $94 million in damages and interest. As a result, Tivo's stock soared 29% on Thursday. Naturally, EchoStar said it would appeal the ruling, which will extend litigation that has been ongoing since 2004.
Dish said in a statement:
We are pleased the Federal Circuit found for us on Tivo's hardware claims, but are disappointed in the Federal Circuit's decision on the software claims. The decision, however, will have no effect on our current or future customers because EchoStar's engineers have developed and deployed 'next-generation' DVR software to our customers' DVRs. This improved software is fully operational, has been automatically downloaded to current customers, and does not infringe the Tivo patent at issue in the Federal Circuit's ruling.So Dish customers will be able to use their existing DVRs without being affected much by this ruling. For its part Tivo's press release was full of joy:
"We are extremely pleased that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit unanimously ruled in our favor in EchoStar's appeal of the district court judgment of patent infringement, full award of damages and that the injunction, which was stayed pending appeal, was ordered to be reinstated. Today's ruling is confirmation of the value of TiVo's IP portfolio, which is in addition to the other benefits TiVo has to offer. TiVo can now continue to focus on its goal to drive greater distribution in both its stand alone and mass distribution efforts."
So essentially Tivo won on software, but not on its hardware claims. That's ok, I guess, since Tivo is discontinuing its Series 3 HD DVRs according to Megazone at Tivo Lovers. [tags] DVR, Tivo, Dish Network, EchoStar, lawsuit, Series 3 [/tags]
Survey: People Multitask During Commercials
February 1st, 2008 No Comments
According to a survey from BIGresearch, people often multi-task during commercial TV breaks.
Channel surfing is the the most popular activity during TV commercials with 41.2% doing so followed by talking with others in the room or by phone (33.5%), and mentally tuning out ads (30.2%).
Interestingly just 5.5% said they regularly fully pay attention to commercials. That's got to hurt any advertisers out there. And the survey didn't even take into account DVR users, who may routinely skip through commercials. Wonder how many of us DVR users usually pay attention to commercials. I sometimes catch an interesting snippet of a commercial and rewind to watch one. But that does not happen very often. The ad must look very engaging or weird for me to think it's worthy to watch.
What happens when there are no commercials? How do people with DVRs multi-task when they skip commercials? Most likely they have to create their own breaks (bathroom, phone calls, smoking, laundry, cooking, etc.) whenever they can. As an avid skipper of commercials, I can go hours without taking a break from watching TV.
And when is a good time to stop? During actual commercial breaks or do you just pause it whenever? I do both.
The survey also found that eating is the number one activity people do while using media followed by doing housework, doing laundry, cooking and talking on phone. Now that's all media like radio, TV and Internet.
[tags] DVR, advertising, survey, research [/tags]
Interestingly just 5.5% said they regularly fully pay attention to commercials. That's got to hurt any advertisers out there. And the survey didn't even take into account DVR users, who may routinely skip through commercials. Wonder how many of us DVR users usually pay attention to commercials. I sometimes catch an interesting snippet of a commercial and rewind to watch one. But that does not happen very often. The ad must look very engaging or weird for me to think it's worthy to watch.
What happens when there are no commercials? How do people with DVRs multi-task when they skip commercials? Most likely they have to create their own breaks (bathroom, phone calls, smoking, laundry, cooking, etc.) whenever they can. As an avid skipper of commercials, I can go hours without taking a break from watching TV.
And when is a good time to stop? During actual commercial breaks or do you just pause it whenever? I do both.
The survey also found that eating is the number one activity people do while using media followed by doing housework, doing laundry, cooking and talking on phone. Now that's all media like radio, TV and Internet.
[tags] DVR, advertising, survey, research [/tags] 
Posted in research 