Motorola's set-top business going on the auction block

Motorola set-top box unit lures PE bids [Reuters]

 As a dominant player in the television set-top business, millions of Americans watch their television shows via Motorola's equipment. That business looks to be going on the auction block over the next few months. Reuters reports that several firms have expressed an interest in purchasing Motorola's set-top division. Those reportedly include several private equity firms along with equipment manufacturer Arris.

One source quoted in this article as calling the set-top business "yesterday's technology," but that statement doesn't capture the possibility of the business becoming the technology of tomorrow. Recently the FCC announced its interest in set-top manufacturers creating a cross-platform set-top capable of broadband access as part of the Commission's national broadband initiative. With their widespread deployment, the FCC believes that set-tops could be a vehicle for expanding broadband adoption.

It's unclear who will end up with the winning bid, though this article has a list of the likely bidders. Regardless of the outcome, its looking possible that many cable customers will be seeing a new company logo on their digital set-tops in the near future.

Comments

[Richard]

Nice boxes, too bad Insight was cheep and only bought the DVR one, vs the HD only one.

[Pauly]

The HD only box is almost the exact same box but without a hard drive...If you're going to spend the money on a HD box might as well go for the DVR.

[DM]

Pauly,

I don’t think you quite understand why you would want an HD box without a DVR option. This would give consumers more choices as to the type of services that they want to subscribe to. Believe it or not, there are some people out there that do not want a HD DVR box but just a box that can accept HD signals, especially consumers that have multiple HDTVs in their household.

The advantage of this is that the cost of the box would decrease, and likely the fee to rent the box would also decrease. So if you are a consumer that has three set top boxes that are leased, but you only want one HD DVR box, you would have a cheaper option than renting three HD DVR boxes even though you may only use the DVR service on one box.

In my opinion, the cable industry needs to strengthen the set top box options that they offer to consumers. They need to implement a plan to slowly navigate towards MPEG-4 video encoding and possible switched digital video delivery of video signals. Set top boxes are the future gateway to cable service and where changes need to start.

[Chet]

I am an Insight customer and recently purchased two new hdtv's. I currently have an Insight DVR box and two standard definition boxes. I called Insight to have my standard definition boxes switched out to hd boxes but couldn't believe when they told me I had to rent two HD-DVR boxes at $15.95 to get hd on my new tv's. I don't need DVR on the two new tv's but Insight doesn't have a box for just hd.

That will add $22 to my bill. With these new boxes I would be paying almost $48 in equipment rental. The Insight representatives only solution was for me to drop some of my services to lower my bill so that I could afford the new equipment fees. I found this to be insulting, if I didn't want those services I wouldn't have ordered them in the first place.

I have searched on line for a hd box I could purchase but couldn't find any which leads me to believe the cable companies are blocking the sale of these boxes.

Therefore after the holidays I am begrudgingly switching to satellite, as this is the only way I can let Insight know my displeasure.

[Steve Huff]

I agree that the equipment rental fees they charge are highway robbery. They have up'd the fee this year too. Think about that, they up'd the fee on a FIXED COST. I'm sure I've already paid for those two boxes at least twice.

[Jay W]

I would also like multiple HD boxes in my home without having to pay for DVR on each set. I will be switching to satellite unless I can find a third party HD receiver that will work with Insight. The HD/DVR combo is a complete scam. Why would Insight offer a digital box w/o an HD output?

[Mike]

I can't believe anyone actually thinks the Motorola DVR boxes are any good. Too bad Tivo does not buy them and come up with a revenue model to get their interface to the masses unlike the bonk Comast project.

If Insight is going to make you take a DVR box just to get HD, go buy the Tivo and rent the cable cards. I amortized the Tivos and the subscriptions over three years assuming I keep for 3 years and it's $1-$2 more a month. If you use the Tivo for a week or two, you will never go back unless you love on-demand.

[Chet]

I don't think you can buy the Tivo box and use it without a Tivo subscription which is $12.95 per month. This solution seems to be more expensive.

$12.95 subscription
$ 2.00 depreciation
$ 1.99 cable card
-------
$16.94

Approximately $17 as opposed to $15.95 for an Insight hd/dvr box. Am I missing something? Now if you could purchase the Tivo box without a subscription that would be a good solution.

Does anyone know of a hd box a consumer can purchase that will work on Insights system?

[Jason Stiles]

Chet, you definitely aren't missing anything. As Mike said its still 1 or 2 bucks more per month.

As he also said, once you use it you'll understand what junk box systems insight is providing with the motorola boxes. A good comparison might be this:

For 15.95 per month insight will give you a 1986 Nissan Sentra. Undoubtedly a solid option that will get you from point a to point b.

For a $1.50 more per month, you can get a 2010 BMW 7 series and all the lovely amenities that come with it.

No one is saying either option is affordable, I'm just saying if you can get something nice and comfortable and easy to use for a buck or so more it really makes it look like insight is gouging us un the price of the stupid buggy motorola boxes that don't even respond half the time when you press fast forward or rewind buttons.

[Andy L]

Chet

I am using a Sony DHG-HDD250 with Insight cable card. I purchased from ebay for $300. They are currently going for $300-$400 for the 250 model now on ebay.

Also there is the Moxi HD DVR. More info listed below at the link.

http://moxi.com/us/home.html