Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is mostly finished with the rollout of its new cloud DVR technology. A Comcast spokesperson said the company has launched the service in a majority of its markets, and expects to offer the service to 100 percent of its X1 footprint well before the end of the year.
The cable provider currently offers its cloud DVR service in Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, San Francisco and elsewhere.
Comcast first launched its cloud DVR technology at the beginning of last year in Boston. Since then, the company has been slowly rolling the service out to new markets, a staggered rollout process that the Comcast spokesperson said was typical of the company's approach to most new offerings.
Just this week, Comcast announced that it had expanded its cloud-based DVR to X1 platform users in Central California, including systems in Santa Barbara, Fresno, Chico and Stockton.
Comcast's cloud DVR system is an element of its X1 offering, and it replaces the premises-based DVR service that Comcast offered on its legacy cable system.
Comcast's cloud DVR service essentially allows the company's customers to take their DVR content with them wherever they go. Cloud DVR users have access to a cloud-based digital video recorder that can record up to 500 GB worth of video, as well as four shows at once. The offering also allows users to view their DVR content while on the road, via either download or streaming.
Some cloud DVR offerings have run into problems with content owners, which have argued that their content licensing rights don't necessarily extend to cloud-based recorders. However, the Comcast spokesperson said the company's cloud DVR service adheres to the company's existing content licenses.
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