E.W. Scripps subsidiary Nuvyyo has released a redesigned version of its Tablo DVR that will “better meet the needs of consumers by providing an enhanced over-the-air TV experience with content recommendations and a curated selection of free ad-supported streaming TV channels integrated into the live TV program guide,” the company explains. The puck-like device is available for a one-time hardware fee, with no subscription, contracts or fees required. The Tablo sells for $99.95 at TabloTV.com, Best Buy and Amazon, while the Tablo Total System, which includes a 35-mile indoor TV antenna, is available for the promotional price of $109.95 and will later cost $129.95.

The Tablo includes 50+ hours of onboard digital storage for recording and two tuners. “For the first time the Tablo device’s advanced DVR scheduling and enriched TV guide data are included,” explains the Nuvyyo announcement. The device also “allows fast-forwarding through commercials,” Broadcasting & Cable reports.

The redesigned DVR is emblematic of “the renaissance of free over-the-air broadcast and ad-supported streaming TV,” writes Broadcasting & Cable, explaining that “Scripps, which pushed antennas last year as part of its Free TV Project, also paid $14 million for Nuvyyo, a Canadian tech company that manufactures digital video recorders under the Tablo brand.”

Scripps hopes Tablo will help build OTA viewership, particularly of Scripps-owned local TV stations and networks like Court TV, Scripps News and ION Television.

“While cable cord-cutting has brought more viewers to free over-the-air broadcast television, it has also separated many consumers from their DVR services, which were often bundled as part of a pay-TV package,” Broadcasting & Cable explains.

“Scripps puts ATSC 3.0 on the back burner with its new Tablo OTA DVR, but Grant Hall, the exec behind the gadget, says NextGen TV is still part of the longer-term plan,” writes Next TV, which quotes Hall saying “it’s just the first product — it doesn’t mean that we’re ignoring or not doing ATSC 3.0.”

In 2022, shortly before it was acquired by Scripps, “Nuvyyo launched the Tablo ATSC 3.0 QUAD HDMI DVR for NextGen TV,” TV Technology reports, explaining that the product “never made it to the market” after broadcast station ownership groups “indicated their intent to encrypt ATSC 3.0 signals using Digital Rights Management (DRM)” and Nuvyyo needed more time to add decryption keys during the manufacturing phase.