Charter Communications has picked its Rochester cable systems for the commercial debut of a TV set control box that can record and store programs, as well as images from a home computer.
St. Louis-based Charter is buying 100,000 units of the Motorola Broadband Media Center for its systems nationwide, with plans to offer the service this fall.
“Rochester has been chosen as the first market within Charter to launch this service and this platform,” said Bill Haarstead, director of marketing for Charter’s Minnesota Group.
Why Rochester MN?
The local systems were chosen as Charter’s premiere market because digital service has a comparatively large following here. More than 15 percent of customers order the digital tier, which delivers premium services including music channels and pay-per-view programming.
“We think it will appeal to the existing digital base (of customers) and bring new customers into that category,” Haarstead said. The roll-out is planned for November or December.