Time Warner Offers Free Variations of DVR

Time Warner Cable will begin offering Look Back in the fall of 2007, a new feature that allows its customers to watch, record, rewind and fast forward their favorite shows at no cost.

Unlike DVR services, Look Back and its sister feature Start Over do not allow consumers to fast forward through commercials, and do not provide a library to store viewed content. But without the hassle of equipment set up, and the convenience and ease of recording a plethora of shows without the viewer having to set reminders, both of these features deliver unique interactive experiences. With Look Back, a Time Warner customer can view certain TV shows later in the day that they air, anytime prior to midnight.

"Many customers do fast-forward through commercials when given the choice, and that is an obvious and undeniable benefit of a digital video recorder," said Peter Stern, executive vice president for new product development at Time Warner Cable. "But the digital video recorder is principally about enabling customers to watch what they want, when they want. It returns control to customers over the television schedule."

Start Over delivers a similar user-friendly, free service to Time Warner customers, and began its test launch in South Carolina in 2005. Operating with more than 100 channels, Start Over automatically creates temporary recordings. If a customer switches to one of these stations in the middle of a show, he or she is able to view it from the beginning. A half-hour show, for instance, can be viewed anytime within 30 minutes of when it started.

Both features function as a basic DVR, but unlike Tivo and other similar technologies, Time Warner is offering both Look Back and Start Over without any monthly obligation or fee. In addition to South Carolina, Start Over is currently available in San Antonio, TX; Greensboro, NC and Rochester, NY, with plans for continued expansion in 2007 and 2008.