Launch Date of TiVo Rival Still Uncertain

Two months after notifying customers that consumer testing of its super-duper DTR was about to start, TelstraClear still doesn’t have a date for when the service will go live.

The media device sounds like a fantastic gizmo that combines a smart, sleek look with the best functionality of MySky HDi and TiVo — but with the bonus of 1080p content.

The telco had hope to launch it in February but software glitches have dragged out the delay to such an extent that customer patience and goodwill risk being exhausted after years of enduring a second-rate cable-TV service.

“We are aiming to confirm key dates around customer trials and on-sale shortly,” was all a Telstra spokesman could tell ScreenScribe.tv.

The uncertainty coincides with what the NZ Herald calls a “stoush” breaking out between Telstra and its TV content provider, Sky, over access to the online rights the telco needs to distinguish its TV service from Sky and TiVo’s.

As Telstra’s TV manager, Jeff Doyle, said earlier this year, “Linear broadcasting content is not the end game … We’re looking at other broadcast options, especially in the broadband space.”

This site reported in February that Telstra had been in talks with Sky about making its supply contract, which it recently resigned for another four years, less restrictive.

On Monday, The Dominion Post quoted Telstra chief executive Allan Freeth as saying the telco was “very unhappy” with the arrangement and didn’t rule out cutting ties with Sky, although he’d rather “build the partnership … We just want a bit of freedom.”