Time Warner Cable has launched Start Over in its New York City market of Staten Island. Start Over allows customers to restart a program in progress without the need for an in-home DVR. The service is available on both standard and high definition channels. The service is offered free of charge to digital cable subscribers and is currently available on 40 channels.

Time Warner Cable is upping the ante on its Start Over technology, by extending it to HD channels. Start Over allows subscribers to come into a program after it has already started, and start it over from the beginning. Start Over was pioneered by Time Warner Cable, and many of their cable company brethren including Comcast and Brighthouse have embraced the technology for their own networks. Start Over will initially launch in Time Warner’s South Carolina markets.

Bright House Networks announced the launch of a large Start Over deployment for its Tampa, FL market. Start Over, developed by Time Warner Cable, allows subscribers to start a program from the beginning if they start watching it after its already started. The technology allows subscribers to “start over” during a window of time equal to 2 ½ times the length of the targeted program. Bright House joins Time Warner and Comcast who have also launched Start Over deployments, although this is the largest to date. Bright House will offer the service free of charge to its digital cable subscribers.

Bright House Networks will launch a “start over” feature in certain Florida markets. The start over feature allows subscribers who may have missed the beginning of a scheduled program to start it over. The service is accessed by a button on the remote control and may be started over up until the end of the program. Bright House will offer the service at no additional charge to its digital tier subscribers.

Time Warner will offer a free DVR ‘like’ service in select markets. The service is branded as Look Back, and allows subscribers to watch television shows that they have missed on any given day, as long as they watch them before midnight. The DVR function is fairly limited. It doesn’t allow for fast forwarding for example, preventing subscribers from ad skipping. Look Back joins Time Warner’s other DVR ‘light’ service, Start Over. Start Over allows subscribers to go back to the beginning of a TV show if they have missed up to the first 30 minutes of the program. Time Warner is spending considerable time and effort with these trials to develop a long term DVR strategy.

DVR presents interesting challenges for cable operators. While it provides a great value add service to subscribers, it also alienates advertisers, an important revenue stream and business partner to multichannel video service providers. Finding the right balance between meeting subscriber demands and keeping advertisers happy is the desired goal. Time Warner’s experiments are providing them valuable data. Data they may someday be able to use as a competitive advantage.