Cox to offer HD recorders

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

Cox Communications Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. cable-television operator, said it will offer high-definition digital-video-recorder service to most of its customers by September to win new users and boost sales.

The company began selling the service to customers in San Diego in April using a Scientific-Atlanta Inc. set-top box. Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola Inc. will supply the product to Atlanta-based Cox's remaining cable systems, excluding one or two markets, within the next three months, said spokeswoman Laura Oberhelman.

Cox is trying to retain and win more customers by selling new services such as DVRs, video on demand and high-definition TV programming. The company boosted the number of cable-TV customers by about 0.5 percent during the first quarter, compared with satellite-TV competitor DirecTV Group Inc.'s 4.3 percent increase.

Digital-TV subscribers planning to use Cox's high-definition enabled DVRs will need to own a HD television and pay an additional $19.90 a month to lease the set-top box. The recorders allow users to tape about 20 hours of high-definition programming or 80 hours of TV shows in standard format.

Cox had 6.4 million cable-TV subscribers as of March 31.

Most Cox markets that are supplied with set-top boxes by Scientific-Atlanta, including Santa Barbara, Calif., and Las Vegas, will provide the service by August, Oberhelman said. The other half of Cox's markets, whose set-top boxes are supplied by Motorola, will offer the service by September.

DirecTV, the biggest U.S. satellite-TV provider, began selling DVRs that can tape high-definition programming during the current quarter, spokesman Bob Marsocci said. The firm began offering DVRs for taping standard-format programming in October 2000 in partnership with TiVo Inc., and has about one million users for that product.

DirecTV's customers are required to pay about $999 for the purchase and installation of the high-definition DVRs, and an additional $4.95 a month for the service. DirecTV doesn't provide the option of leasing the receivers, Marsocci said.

The company plans to make the product available "on a much more widespread basis throughout the U.S." during the third quarter, he said.

The DVRs are "a very strong customer acquisition and retention tool," Marsocci said. "They spend more with us, and they're more satisfied customers."

DirecTV had 11.1 million subscribers at the first quarter's end.