Monday, March 14, 2005

Comcast and TiVo Announce 7-Year Strategic Partnership

Comcast agreed to make the TiVo service and advertising capability widely available to its cable customers in the majority of its markets around the country.


Under the multiyear non-exclusive agreement, Comcast and TiVo will work together to develop a version of the TiVo service that will be made available on Comcast's current primary DVR platform. New software will be developed by TiVo and will be incorporated into Comcast's existing network platforms. The new service will be marketed with the TiVo brand, and is expected to be available on Comcast's DVR products in a majority of Comcast markets in mid-to-late 2006.


"It is very important that TiVo has found a way to work with the nation's largest cable operator on a cooperative basis to develop a state-of-the-art TiVo Service, fully integrated with a cable set-top box, that will make TiVo available to millions of cable viewers... This is a real milestone for TiVo and for the cable industry, but most importantly it is a milestone for television viewers," said Tom Rogers, vice chairman of TiVo.
http://www.comcast.com
http://www.tivo.com

  • Last week, Comcast and Motorola announced a multi-year set-top commitment valued at more than US$1 billion, the largest set-top purchase agreement in the operator's history. The deal extends a multi-year agreement for Comcast to purchase set-tops and network equipment. In addition, Motorola will provide high-definition digital video recorders and standard-definition entry-level models, among others.


  • Comcast and Motorola also announced an agreement to form two joint ventures focused on next-generation conditional access technologies. The first joint venture will focus primarily on development of a next-generation conditional access system, using MediaCipher as its foundation. Comcast and Motorola will jointly manage the development group. The second joint venture will focus on licensing conditional access and other cable technologies, including MediaCipher, to United States cable operators and third-party providers. The licensing venture will be managed by Comcast.