Monday, November 13, 2006

TiVo Unveils Broadband Video Delivery Approach

TiVo unveiled its broadband video distribution strategy including a means to download content from the Web and view it on a TV. Key elements of TiVo's broadband strategy include:

  • Unified Search -- a service launching next year whereby consumers can search across broadcast, cable and broadband content sources through an approach that integrates all video for access, menuing, searching, recording, and viewing. All content sources can be accessed in one place from the TiVo "Now Playing" list.


  • ICM Guru Guides - TiVo and ICM have teamed up to provide TiVo subscribers with TV show and film recommendations personally selected by well-known Hollywood actors and directors. These celebrity Guru Guides will offer subscribers the ability to have this content automatically recorded on their TiVo boxes.


  • Home Movies Service -- Working in partnership with One True Media, TiVo is introducing the ability to provide friends and families scattered across the country with a way to share their home videos, by sending them directly to the television set. After uploading their home movies to One True Media, consumers will be able to edit their videos online and will receive a personal TiVo channel code which they can then distribute to other TiVo subscribers. The service will be accessible broadband-connected TiVo Series2 and Series3 boxes in Q1 2007 for a monthly fee of $4.


  • Autotranscode -- TiVo subscribers who upgrade to this new PC software will be able to browse, transfer, and watch Web video on their TV sets, even if the content is not originally in a format that televisions can display, by autotranscoding that video through their PCs. TiVo Desktop Plus 2.4 software will support video content downloaded to PCs running Windows XP in formats such as QuickTime, Windows Media Video, and MPEG-4.


  • New TiVoCast Service Programming Partners -- A fresh group of media companies, including CBS Interactive, Forbes and specialized health content, will deliver broadband programming directly to the television through TiVo's TiVoCast service. Launched earlier this year, the TiVoCast service delivers broadband video directly to the television sets of TiVo subscribers.
http://www.tivo.com