Cable and Satellite TV service operators can leverage Seagate external storage products, call centers and marketing to offer subscribers modular storage products for TV. Seagate today launched a unique program to help cable TV and satellite service providers design, sell and support in-home media center storage expansion devices. At The National Show (booth 1123) in New Orleans, Seagate demonstrated the new class of add-on storage devices a cable or satellite operator can offer its customers. Seagate is also offering details on a comprehensive business model that enables service operators to launch this new service to subscribers with minimized startup time, investment, and inventory commitment.

Manufacturers of set-top boxes, digital video recorders and home media centers are looking for an efficient way to upgrade and expand the capabilities of their products. As subscribers become more comfortable with their DVRs and home media centers, more content will fill up these devices' internal drives. The continued growth of high definition services will further increase the need for storage capacity by an estimated factor of 9x. Using Seagate external storage units, subscribers will be able to easily expand the storage capacity of their compatible DVRs, adding years of life to the popular devices.

Based on its successful and award-winning design for PC-based external backup and storage, Seagate's partnership with service providers goes far beyond providing a storage unit:

DVR service is becoming a fast-growing source of new revenue streams for cable and satellite TV operators. DVR service gives TV viewers easy program recording and the ability to pause and rewind live TV; for the cable and satellite operator, DVR service holds out the potential for reduced customer churn, higher retention rates in the digital tier and additional revenue streams.