Remember that tru2way-related Memorandum of Understanding that was all the rage about this time last year? It appears the 6 cable companies haven't lived up to at least one part of their agreement, collectively missing the deadline of July 1 to have 100% of their digital cable headends compatible. No word on how close they got, but Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House still insist it's "not that far off" though we don't see how missing important milestones is helping move the technology forwards.

Just as we heard back in February, Time Warner and Comcast have joined hands in order to regain control on some of the content that is slipping right out from under 'em. In the olden days, the only portal for catching content was the 'tube; today, a vast array of television shows are available gratis on the web, and that's downright frightening for pay-TV operators. Today, both firms are detailing TV Everywhere in the most general way possible, only telling us that paying Comcast subscribers will soon have access to "premium long-form content" via a web portal. TNT and TBS are the only networks specifically named thus far, but considering that both of those already offer their best programming online to everyone, we're not terribly impressed.

The agreement also includes a trial with around 5,000 Comcast users, which will be used to heavily test a newfangled authentication technology that will be necessary to allow paying Comcast users to access the material from any internet-connected PC. NewTeeVee has also assembled a clean, easy-to-digest FAQ that explains what exactly all this is. To be frank, it seems like a solution in search of a problem from the consumer viewpoint. After all, with portals like Hulu and individual network websites already providing in-demand content online, why is there even a need for some "special portal" for Comcast users? We've heard that paying subs will have access to even more material, possibly movies or other premium shows. But we won't front: we certainly don't want TV Everywhere to convert some of the content that's already free into pay-only content in order to accomplish the aforesaid "even more" goal. At any rate, the public at large probably won't hear more about this until the trial sessions end at an undisclosed time, but you can bet we'll be keeping a cautious eye on any developments.

Read - TV Everywhere press release
Read - NewTeeVee FAQ

It's been a long, messy road, but now that TiVo's beaten a victory out of EchoStar in that seemingly-endless DVR patent lawsuit it sounds like the company is trying to exert some muscle -- it's already in talks to bring its service to Time Warner Cable, and sources have told Bloomberg the ultimate plan is to eventually collect royalties from every pay-TV provider in the US. That might sound bullying and even a little trollish, but keep in mind these patents have withstood pretty much every legal challenge EchoStar could throw at them, so TiVo's operating from a position of some certainty here -- especially since it's got license agreements with huge players like Comcast and DirecTV to use as leverage in negotiations as well. Of course, none of this solves any of TiVo's actual problems with its products, and the company's topsy-turvy balance sheet has some analysts thinking its ripe for a buyout by one of the bigs, so things could change dramatically at any minute, but for right now it sounds like your chances of getting the TiVo interface on your cable or satellite company DVR just went up, and that's almost certainly a good thing.

Bad news for Mark Cuban, not only are his Dallas Mavericks out of the NBA Playoffs, but Time Warner Cable is dropping HDNet and HDNet Movies on all of its systems on May 31. Hopefully this doesn't mark the beginning of the end of the network MOJO HD-style, especially since we've heard of the network sliding onto new Comcast systems recently, but TWC PR director Robyn Watson doesn't seem optimistic, saying "being in HD is not enough." Ouch. Still, fans of Art Mann Presents and the like take heart, the "24x7 HD Network for men" MavTV is launching on the HD Xtra tier at the beginning of June.

Once upon a time, a smattering of new HD channels in one major metropolitan area was a huge deal. Nowadays, it's almost expected that one area or another will experience some HD expansion each week. In order to keep things nice and tidy around here, we deliver high-def expansions, market expansions and anything else dealing with HD channel growth right here. If we missed an area that you're familiar with, drop us a line in comments so everyone can catch up. The more the merrier, we say!

Read - DIRECTV Delivers Local HD Programming to Customers in Harrisonburg, Va.
Read - Telemundo 47 Now Available In HD On Time Warner Cable New York
Read - Bright House Connects With YES 'National' In Orlando
Read - Time Warner adds HD movie channel, expands HD tier 33%
Read - Some Oceanic Time Warner customers can soon watch Smithsonian Networks (Hawaii)

Read - MTVN Launches Six HD Channels With SES
Read - TiVo takes on Nielsen
Read - Comcast Adds 27 HD Networks in Houston
Read - World Fishing Network: Fully Hooked On HD
Read - Smithsonian Networks(TM) and Time Warner Cable Sign Programming Distribution Deal
Read - Telemundo Leads HDTV Charge
Read - BET HD Now Available on Cox
Read - U-verse TV Starts 2009 With Record Quarter
Read - Comcast adds 27 new HD channels in Portland
Cablevision to add Live Well HD (Thanks LI PC Tech)
Read - Cablevision: High Definition Encore and Starz On Demand added
Read - Ringgold Telephone Company (RTC) is proud to announce the availability of eight additional high-definition television channels
Read - TMJ4 is Now HD (Thanks Paul)
Read - FOX 17: Broadcasting in High Definition (Thanks Alex)

It's already delayed its controversial broadband capping plan in a number of markets, and it looks like Time Warner Cable has now gone one big step further in Rochester, New York (one of the initial test markets), where it has reportedly scrapped the new tiered pricing plan altogether. As you no doubt recall, the plan was more or less modeled on cellphone pricing plans, and had intended to cap customers' data usage at a certain level and charge upwards of $1 per GB for any overages (eventually maxing out at $150 per month). That, naturally, didn't go over so well with folks, and even New York Senator Charles Schumer eventually got in on the act and complained directly to Time Warner Cable. Of course, this still doesn't officially mark the end of the pricing plan in other markets, but it certainly seems to be getting increasingly difficult for Time Warner Cable to move ahead with it.

[Thanks, Phil]

Update: As a few of you have helpfully pointed out in comments, Time Warner Cable has now put out a statement of its own that confirms in not-at-all Orwellian terms that it is shelving all of its consumption-based billing trials "while the customer education process continues." The company also says that it'll soon be making bandwidth measurement tools available to customers, which it hopes will "aid in the dialog going forward."

In a move seemingly designed to further our frustrations with broadband providers, Time Warner Cable has soft-announced an "unlimited" package once its new data caps go into place... for an affordable $150 monthly charge. Responding to criticism over the company's plans to start capping usage and charging for overages, Landel Hobbs clarified the provider's stance, letting users know that the capping would be limited to a $75 ceiling, thus (when paired with its top tier plan) would provide "virtually unlimited" usage. Virtually unlimited. Here's a rundown of what the COO proposes:

• A limited package for "light users" at 1GB / monthly, 768KB down / 128KB up, with overage charges of $2 / GB / month.
• Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard, and Turbo packages at 10GB / 20GB / 40GB / and 60GB caps, respectively, and overage charges at $1 / GB / month.
• A big daddy, 100GB Turbo package at $75 / month with overage fees of $1 / GB, which, when coupled with that magic threshold of $75 in charges, becomes the "unlimited" plan.

We only have two questions, guys. First, how will you let end users know they're hitting caps? Right now there's no centralized solution for monitoring bandwidth. Even cell phones show minutes used, so will you give us the infrastructure for broadband monitoring? Secondly -- instead of giving users a "virtually" unlimited package, why not just sell an unlimited package at $150 a month? The impression we get is that you want to leave the door open for aggressive users, and that your capping of capping charges might be a moving target in the right situation.

[Via eWeek]

No, folks -- this is no prank. Time Warner Cable really is throwing caution (and public opinion) to the wind and moving forward with its evil consumption-based internet billing. If you'll recall, we heard that the operator was trialing the method -- which imposes premium rates on big broadband users -- back in early 2008, but now it seems it's quietly hoping to roll it out into more major markets. Starting this month, TWC will start gathering information on its customers' internet use in Austin, TX, San Antonio, TX, Rochester, NY and Greensboro, NC; if all goes "well," consumption billing will hit those markets this summer or sooner. We'll point you to the read link if you're interested in just how outrageous these capped plans look (particularly for internet TV viewers), but we'd be remiss of our duties if we didn't share this gem of a quote from TWC CEO Glenn Britt: "We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension." Thanks for clarifying, Glenn-o.

[Thanks Kevin, image courtesy of Corbis]

Ok, we've seen multiroom setups, mostly from IPTV providers, and tru2way has had a limited rollout so far, but Time Warner Cable and Motorola are teaming up to be the first to bring the two together in customers homes. Follow Me TV is already available on FiOS, but the Dolby Digital Plus-supporting DCX3400-M DVR we saw at CES in '08 and DXC-3200M set-top box will make it happen on cable, shifting high definition video around the house via Multimedia over Coaxial Alliance (MoCA) connections. Hopefully tru2way's interoperability lets customers choose what equipment makes up their home video network, not just the cable company, but we should find out more after launch later this year.

We heard that the cable industry (or at least TWC and Comcast) could begin offering up a lot of pay-TV content to subscribers via the web by this summer, but frankly, we didn't believe it. But thanks to new quotes from Time Warner chief executive Jeff Bewkes and DirecTV CEO Chase Carey, you can safely put us in the "believer" camp. Reportedly, TWC is looking to provide pay-TV content via the internet and even on mobile devices for no extra charge. Bewkes even noted that "everything on television should become available to [customers] on broadband for free," which is pretty amazing for a cable guy to say. DirecTV also seems kosher with the idea of giving in before customers simply jump ship, with its head honcho intelligently stating that "in the past, when a company tries to stop or block something from happening, it's usually failed." Oh, and this whole regime could totally be the shot in the arm mobile TV providers have been yearning for.

Read - TWC names TV-by-internet offering
Read - DirecTV following suit

This won't affect the most of you one single bit, but for those that have a vested interested in either Time Warner, Inc. or Time Warner Cable, the details of the spinoff are now public. The tax-free separation of TWC from Time Warner will involve a dividend distribution of all of the Time Warner Cable common stock held by Time Warner to Time Warner stockholders; said distribution will be made on March 27th to Time Warner stockholders of record at 8PM on March 12th. Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes noted that he was "confident that this separation would benefit Time Warner and Time Warner Cable stockholders," suggesting that the move would enable each entity to be "better positioned to compete, with capital structures more suited to their respective needs as well as greater operational, financial and strategic flexibility." Maybe TWC will get around to adding a few more HD channels now that daddy isn't looking over its shoulder 24/7, but we wouldn't bet the farm on it.

Wait, what? Time Warner Cable is still a part of Time Warner, Inc.? Weren't they supposed to split, like, almost a year ago? We've always heard that old flames are hard to extinguish, so we guess we shouldn't be too shocked to hear that this drawn-out separation is still being, well, drawn out. According to a fresh release from parent company Time Warner, it has "elected to complete the separation of the two companies through a spin-off distribution involving a pro rata dividend of all of the Time Warner Cable common stock held by Time Warner to Time Warner stockholders." If you're hungry for details beyond that, we're afraid you'll have to wait -- all we're told is that the two "continue to expect that the separation will be completed by the end of the current quarter." Cute how "continue" was thrown in there, yeah?

In an effort to maintain relevancy during a time when online TV viewing is on the rise, a number of big name cable companies are looking to throw in online companion packages to sweeten the pay-TV equation. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that top cable providers (namely Comcast and TWC) and TV networks are looking to assemble a large swath of online programming -- some of which has been previously unavailable -- and deliver it only to subscribers. As it stands, loads of shows are available right now for free via Hulu and broadcast websites, but some channels without online portals can only be caught via cable. From what we're gathering, it seems that these operators could be working to bring some of that content to the web, essentially providing a means to tune into a Comcast or TWC lineup without having to be in front of the set-top-box.

Update: Due to some quotes taken out of context, we have revamped our story above to show a clearer picture of the cable companies' intentions.