AT&T Teams with Accuweather.com on Interactive TV Weather Service

--Rolls Out U-verse Total Home DVR across Entire U-verse Footprint

US incumbent telco, AT&T, has teamed with Accuweather.com to launch an interactive service, called Weather On Demand, on its Microsoft Mediaroom-powered IPTV service, U-verse TV. The service--which initially launched in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas-Forth Worth, Indianapolis and San Diego (AT&T plans to make it available across the entire U-verse TV footprint next year; it recently announced that it had launched it in Houston)--allows viewers to access weather information for their home city and any other US city they specify on a "My Cities" list by tuning to channel 227. They can then view weather information for cities throughout the country; view current local conditions, including high/low temperatures, humidity, wind, visibility and barometric pressure; access local and nationwide forecasts, including hourly and six-day outlooks; access animated local and national radar imagery and satellite views; watch current videos of meteorologists presenting local weather updates; and search and select cities by name, zip code or by looking at a US map. "Weather On Demand is another great example of the benefits of U-verse TV and our Internet Protocol (IP) platform," G.W. Shaw, AT&T's executive director of U-verse marketing, said in a prepared statement. "We're making it easy for customers to check weather conditions and forecasts in their hometown or across the country, whenever they want. We know that AccuWeather.com's content will be a great resource for our U-verse TV customers who want up-to-date and accurate weather information."

In other AT&T news: The company says it has launched its new whole-home PVR service--dubbed AT&T U-verse Total Home DVR--across the entire U-verse TV footprint. According to the company, the service--which it is offering at no additional charge--allows customers to watch HD and SD recordings on their DVR on up to seven additional connected TV's in their home with full trickplay capabilities; pause a recorded show in one room and resume watching it at the same point in another room; play back multiple, independent viewings of the same recorded show on different TV's; play back up to four recorded shows at once, of which up to three can be in HD; watch up to five HD programs simultaneously throughout their home, including two live HD programs and three recorded HD programs; organize recorded content by series (series recordings are grouped as a single heading in the recorded TV menu); store up to 37 hours of HD content or up to 133 hours of SD content; record up to four programs at once on a single DVR; and schedule recordings remotely from a Web-connected PC or mobile phone. The service also "pads" recordings, by automatically adding a minute to the beginning and two minutes to the end of each scheduled recording, AT&T says. According to AT&T, the Total Home DVR service is distributed to customers via a software update, without any need to swap out existing equipment.