Digeo Dips Toe Into Retail Waters
By Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 1/8/2007 3:34:00 PM MT
Set-top and electronic-guide maker Digeo said consumer and regulatory trends will help it to break beyond cable operators to sell “digital-media recorders” directly to consumers starting later this year.
Digeo, primarily owned by Paul Allen’s Vulcan, counts about 400,000 cable subscribers using its Moxi set-top digital-video recorders and graphical Moxi Menu user interface. But it hasn’t really broken past the Motorola and Scientific Atlanta stranglehold. What’s more, Comcast and Time Warner Cable -- which absorbed many Moxi cable customers in carving up Digeo’s key affiliate, Adelphia Communications -- are developing their own advanced electronic guides.
So Digeo CEO Mike Fidler, a former Sony executive, wants to secure space on consumer-electronics retail shelves by marketing Moxi devices that will store a variety of HD programming and be usable in multiple rooms.
Digeo said a couple of trends work in its favor in going retail. One is federal rules, scheduled to take effect in July, aimed at uncoupling cable set-top devices from proprietary encryption systems. The other is the spread of HD content coming at consumers from a variety of devices that consumers will want to manage efficiently.
Digeo is demonstrating two retail-targeted prototypes at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. One, the Moxi Multiroom HD DMR, contains an integrated multistream CableCARD intended to let the device be used on any cable system.
The other prototype, the Moxi Home Cinema Edition HD DMR, is a Linux-based system that uses the recently announced AMD Live! Home Cinema reference design, which Digeo said has advanced audio features and is “the ultimate device for home-theater enthusiasts.”
Both devices include integrated CD/DVD players and features that let users watch, record and play HD programming, stream content from their PCs and support Web scheduling, Digeo said.
Digeo also wants to license Moxi technology to third-party companies as a user interface or application and to add new service and content partners to “enhance the Moxi experience.” It didn't disclose any licensing deals or retail partnerships in the announcement.
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