TiVo in the news

 We knew good and well it was coming, and now the deed has been done. As promised, Blockbuster's On Demand movie rental service has gone live on a bevy of TiVo boxes, enabling Series2, Series3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL DVRs to watch all sorts of releases without needing to purchase another set-top-box or tap into their cable company's VOD system. Read More

TiVo's iconic brand is built around the company's much lauded search-and-suggestion interface. Connected to broadband, DVRs can deliver dozens of branded channels like TiVoCast and can access users' digital video and photo libraries. TiVo is also a content retailer for downloadable video. Read More

Besides changing the way people watch television, TiVo has also begun to change how we measure that behavior with TiVo “StopWatch.” StopWatch connects second-by-second viewing behavior with commercial and promo occurrence data, offering Program Ratings, Spot Ratings and Commercial Retention for both Live Viewing and Time-Shifted Viewing.

In other words, for the first time we’re able to see if promos actually perform. Do viewers stick or click? Read More

Mining audience data from STB devices that deliver TV content via cable or satellite is turning into the digital equivalent of the Alaska gold rush. A growing number of research and technology companies -- including Nielsen (which owns AdweekMedia), TNS Media Research, TiVo, Rentrak and TRA -- envision a promising business that can deliver audience viewing data of unparalleled precision based on millions of households. Read More

TiVo is the closest to providing the kind of content consumers really want. It has Netflix, it will soon have Blockbuster streaming, it allows you to watch video podcasts, you can watch films you download from Amazon.com, and you can stream music from Rhapsody. Even better, it's a DVR, so you can quickly and easily switch to television and start recording your favorite shows. Read More

The future of TV. While some companies are doing crazy things like mounting a Blu-ray player in an HDTV to help gain some traction in the US market, other companies like TiVo are going a bit beyond. This week the company added RSS feed capability. This will allow podcasts and the like to be streamed to the TiVo. Hot. Read More

 Best Buy and TiVo have worked out a nice deal. Best Buy is going to heavily push the DVR in all its stores nationwide and TiVo will produce a special Best Buy DVR and embed its DVR platform in a few HDTVs. Read More

The TiVo model helps to understand how Web 3.0 might work. Express interest in, say, George Clooney, and TiVo's "agent" searches for and records any of his movies airing on TV. But it also finds and records content related to Clooney, such as films he directed or produced, reruns of ER, The Facts of Life and other credited work, interviews and gossip items about him, even the "Tears of a Clooney" episode of American Dad that mocked his persona. Now substitute your brand for "Clooney" and "the entire Web" for "TV," and you get some idea of Web 3.0's potential reach. Read More

TiVo (TIVO) shares are up sharply after hours after a federal court in Texas upheld the company’s patents in its closely watched infringement case against EchoStar (SATS). The Judge ruled that EchoStar and DISH Network (DISH) are in contempt of court, rejected their workaround of TiVo’s patent Read More

Our lives changed dramatically in 2000. A new addition to our family made cute sounds and radically altered our schedules. We were exposed to new ideas and invited to reflect on some old ones. People came into our home to ooh and ahh, asking to hold it and press its buttons. The more it learned about us, the stronger our relationship became. This is the year our love affair with TiVo began. Read More

TiVo Inc. on Tuesday announced the availability of high definition movies and television shows for download to users' television sets via Amazon.com. High definition episodes of current TV seasons will be available for purchase at $2.99 and new release HD movies will be available for rental from $3.99 to $4.99. Read More

The company that's made it so easy for television viewers to avoid watching ads will unveil Monday a plan to help stations sell them. TiVo will challenge Nielsen, whose audience ratings provide the basis for most ad sales, with Stop/Watch Local Markets. It will supplement TiVo's measurements of national TV audiences with data from all but the smallest of the nation's 210 markets. Read More

TiVo considers its DVR a shopping mall with video and music downloads available from Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Rhapsody and other stores of entertainment. But it was missing Blockbuster, which it views as a key anchor for its biggest library of new releases available for download. Blockbuster OnDemand will be added to TiVo's subscription service beginning as early as July, the two companies said Wednesday.  Read More

TiVo HD - Best high-definition cable DVR - Except for a smaller hard drive and more-generic cosmetics, the TiVo HD delivers, essentially, the same feature set as the earlier Series3 model, but for a much more reasonable $300. In addition to TiVo's best-in-class interface, you'll also get a panoply of Internet and network-friendly features: Multi-Room Viewing; TiVoToGo; downloadable videos from TiVoCast and Amazon's Unbox; Internet radio; Rhapsody; podcasts; streaming of music and photos from a networked PC; and online scheduling control. In other words, the TiVo HD is a full-service network media device that runs circles around those "free" DVRs from your cable company. Have satellite instead? DirecTV subscribers should opt for the HR20, while Dish Network subscribers should go for the excellent ViP722.  Read More

The redesigned TiVo Search does away with the Swivel Search and now makes show searching more efficient and HD friendly. Just like Swivel Search TiVo Search will weed through both live TV and broadband content, like Amazon on Demand and YouTube, to find a complete list of available programs. But now upon searching for a show TiVo Search will automatically generate similar recommendations and display them with eye-pleasing art at the top of your TV. Another upgrade over the Swivel is the menu layout that is now three columns wide to make use of wide screen TVs and when available HD content is automatically recommended.  Read More

Today, January 7, 2009, TiVo announced its upgraded TiVo Search that should allow for users to still get search results, but also discover content. Content suggestions are pulled from television listings and also from the Internet. You might find a clip from YouTube that is related to a television show that you watch. With thousands of programs on television, it’s hard finding new things to watch. A “discovery engine” is a great idea to find fresh shows.  Read More

TiVo was nice enough to hit us with the Netflix-enabling Fall Service Update a little early, and the going's been pretty good -- this is probably our favorite Netflix streaming implementation yet. Although it's not as flashy of an experience as the Xbox 360's Netflix implementation, it's faster to start streaming, and to our eyes it looks a lot better -- the 360's output is really dark, while the TiVo looks bright and crisp. On top of that, we've never been able to get our 360 to hit more than two bars when playing HD-capable content, while the TiVo instantly spooled up and started streaming full-quality 720p video.           Read More

First pizza, now cellphones. Today TiVo is launching the beta version of a mobile site, m.tivo.com, that subscribers can use to search for and record TV shows from their cellphones. Some Verizon Wireless customers already had access to TiVo’s remote-scheduling service (and the company said in September that it was developing similar functionality for Research In Motion’s BlackBerry), but the new free site extends scheduling features to Internet-enabled handsets regardless of carrier or manufacturer.  Read More

You can now order a pizza through your television. In a new promotion with TiVo Inc., Domino's Pizza Inc. will begin taking orders using only a TV set from customers who have broadband TiVo service. When a customer forwards through a commercial for Domino's, TiVo will flash a pop-up advertisement that asks the customer if she would like to order a pizza, then direct her to a Domino's ordering screen.  Read More

Another reason to go with a TiVo instead of a generic DVR: downloadable Disney and indie movies on demand. The deals were actually announced earlier in the year, but starting today you’ll be able to download and rent movies from Jaman.com.  Read More

True story: One of our readers told me he has more than two dozen networked TiVos in his house; obviously he doesn't like to delete any of his recorded shows. This guy should definitely look into the TiVo HD XL, the latest DVR from the company that made TV time-shifting all the rage. The XL is the spiritual successor to 2006's TiVo Series3 DVR. And the XL simply stands for lots of hard drive space--1TB to be exact, as opposed to the standard 160GB that the $300 TiVo HD offers. That extra space translates into about 150 hours of HD recording (up from 20 hours for the TiVo HD) and more than 1,360 hours of basic quality SD recording.  Read More

TiVo. I bit the bullet and bought the Tivo Series 3, the hi-def masterpiece machine (which has, grrr, already been discontinued). Runs like a Swiss watch, has never let us down. Still the best DVR software and features on the planet. Subscribes to my favorite Web videos. When I’m away, I can program it from across the Internet.”   Read More

The company, based in Alviso, Calif., will introduce a “product purchase” feature on Tuesday in partnership with the Internet retailer Amazon.com. Owners of TiVo video recorders will see, in TiVo’s various onscreen menus, links to buy products like CDs, DVDs and books that guests are promoting on talk shows like “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The Late Show With David Letterman” and “The Daily Show.”    Read More

No more squinting at your laptop screen or crowding around the family desktop. On Thursday, TiVo announced users can access YouTube videos, streaming them on their living room TV, rolling out over the next few weeks. It's free to all customers who have a "TiVo HD" or "Series 3" TiVo, or it has to be networked to the Internet.   Read More

Australia's Seven Media Group and digital video recorder provider TiVo Inc. said Tuesday they will launch TiVo service in Australia this month. The TiVo service will be available across Australia and include Season Pass recordings, WishList searches and allow users to access broadband content on their televisions. Seven Media is deploying TiVo's interactive advertising technology to implement new integrated interactive advertising methods.   Read More

3 TiVo - 1999 - One of the first digital video recorders, it finally put an end to the days when all television junkies were held hostage to the networks' scheduling whims (or clunky VCR timers).   Read More

This Father’s Day you might expect to see dads watching the big game or The History Channel, but what shows are dads watching that they don’t want anyone to know about? They might not admit it, but dads love dancing celebrities, doctors who get steamy in broom closets, private school teenagers who can’t stop text messaging and “Access Hollywood.”   Read More

Tom Rogers, a well-rounded media executive, has had his work cut out for him at TiVo (TIVO), the iconic but often-struggling pioneer and leader in the digital video-recorder market. Before coming to TiVo, Mr. Rogers was chairman and CEO of Primedia, which publishes 200 magazines, operates more than 400 Web sites and runs a wide range of television and video businesses. Previous to that, he was president of NBC Cable and executive vice president at NBC, as well as its chief strategist. While there, Mr. Rogers helped found the CNBC business cable channel and established the NBC/Microsoft cable channel and Internet joint venture, MSNBC. He also worked in politics, as senior counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Telecommunications, Consumer Protection and Finance Subcommittee, and has previously worked as a Wall Street lawyer.   Read More

Television viewers have been reading the recommendations of local critics for years. Soon a subset of TiVo users will be able to automatically record a critic’s picks of The Chicago Tribune. TiVo, a leading maker of digital video recorders, is expected to announce on Wednesday a partnership with The Tribune that will deliver the recommendations of Maureen Ryan, the TV critic for The Tribune, straight to the TVs of users who sign up for the service.   Read More

TiVo announced today that its subscribers will soon be able to rent Disney movies through their DVRs directly from their TVs. The service will be provided through an arrangement with CinemaNow. Content will be offered in both standard and high definition (though not all titles will be in HD), and will be available for a 24-hour rental period. TiVo has a movie rental arrangement through Unbox, but Disney content isn’t available for download on the Amazon service.   Read More

After a good deal of--ahem--lively discussion, the editors at PC World have completed this year's list of the 100 best technology products available today. How did we do it? After nominating hundreds of devices, apps, sites, and services we knew to be good, we rated each one on its design, functionality, performance, and impact; the ones garnering the highest total scores made our list. Note that we chose not to rate products specifically on their price or value, focusing instead on their overall quality. After the scoring was over and the dust had cleared, we had a list that served, among other things, to remind us of what an exciting time in tech this truly is, with game-changing product development happening on many fronts. 39. TiVo HD (digital video recorder, $300; service, $13/month) With its excellent user interface and its ability to record high-def programs, the TiVo HD box might be all the DVR you need.   Read More

TiVo has just launched a new Facebook application called ‘My TV‘. You can add the shows you watch, rate and comment on the series or individual episodes, recommend shows to friends, schedule recordings on your TiVo (via links to TiVo Central Online), and more.  Read More

A fondness for TiVo has encouraged users to refer to it with designated nicknames and/or genders. A teacher friend of mine was recently asked by a student if her husband's name was TiVo after the child heard her say she would have to tell TiVo about a new TV show. But like any old friend -- or spouse -- who has been around for a while, TiVo has a few tricks up its sleeve that might surprise longtime users and new owners alike. This column includes just a handful of those tricks and highlights some features that may make TiVo more useful. These tips are for everyday users, not serious hackers, and many others exist.   Read More

Why did so many companies dump HD DVD so fast? Intriguingly, one often-cited reason is the approaching era of Internet movie downloads. The logic goes like this: as long as there’s a format war, consumers won’t buy DVD players of either type. By settling on a single format — it doesn’t really matter which one — the movie and electronics industries can at least start milking the remaining years of the DVD’s life.   Read More

SOME religions believe in an afterlife. Others do not. On Madison Avenue after the Super Bowl, most everyone is a believer.That is because the Internet, digital video recorders, mobile devices and other technologies are giving a strong postgame presence to the commercials that appear each year during the Super Bowl. The spots can be watched later on Web sites, forwarded to friends through e-mail, discussed on message boards and assessed on blogs.   Read More

Q. Is there a way to record programs stored on my TiVo recorder in the living room onto a DVD so I can save them or watch them elsewhere?

A. Although some TiVo digital recorders have integrated DVD burners, you don’t have to own one of those models to get your shows copied to a disc. There are at least a couple of other options.   Read More

The three-judge appeals court panel overturned the lower court's ruling that Dish infringed the hardware elements of the patent but said the violation of the software claims was sufficient to uphold the $74 million in damages the lower court awarded TiVo. WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld TiVo Inc.'s claims that Dish Network Corp. infringed one of its patents, sending TiVo's shares up 29%.  Read More

TiVo, a marketers dream TiVo the recognized leader and creator of DVR (Digital Video Recorders) today announced a partnership with Symantec (you know the Norton’s Anti-virus cats) to be their first interactive advertiser on their TiVoCast Programming. Learning about this got me to thinking… As a marketing professional and a TiVo subscriber I find the TiVo’s interactive marketing very intriguing. For those of you who don’t own one TiVo’s has worked hard to answer the concerns of marketers who feel that TiVo allows viewers to by-pass commercial breaks rendering their ads less effective. In response TiVo has created marketing opportunites for hungry advertisers that are really cool and cutting edge.   Read More

NEW YORK — TiVo aims to make life easy for its digital video recorder customers. But its journey to this potentially pivotal week was extraordinarily difficult. After three years of painstaking work, Comcast, (CMCSA) the nation's largest cable provider, Tuesday will begin marketing TiVo's (TIVO) interface as a premium software upgrade for DVR customers in the Boston area. The significance of the offering reaches far beyond Beantown.   Read More

The world of video is going to go the way of music. In the music world, you can get any song you want, any time you want it, on any device you want it. That's what's happened in the last five, six years. It's become a la carte, on demand. We think the same thing is going to happen with television. That changes the whole notion of television convenience and ease -- to mean being able to go out and find any piece of content you want through your television set and being able to watch it. We've built TiVo's capabilities to do that. We started with being able to retrieve certain content from newspapers and other players that had video that they want to get to the TV set. And we expanded it with Amazon, where they created thousands of television shows and movies [that can be delivered] via broadband straight to your television set.   Read More

TiVo Inc. said Monday its subscribers will soon be able to select video from the Web for playback on televisions through its digital video recording service, building on its strategy to extend its DVR beyond regular TV. The new feature, announced at the International Consumer Electronics Show, will let users apply "Season Pass" recording to video content available on Real Simple Syndication, or RSS, feeds. Such Web-based videos could range from network nightly newscasts to more niche videos culled from blogs or independent Internet sites, such as DiggNation or Ask A Ninja.   Read More

TiVo HD: The best of the set-top DVRs made the leap to HD in late 2006, but the $800 price tag for the new Series3 box was a bitter pill. Luckily, the $300 TiVo HD arrived in August. In the meantime, TiVo's been busy adding support for Amazon Unbox video downloads, the Rhapsody music service, and Picasa photo libraries.   Read More

Like many marketing managers, Lee Scherbinsky can talk a blue streak about a new product. But in the case of TiVo, the television recording device, which arrived in British Columbia stores just days ago, Scherbinsky has a personal interest because he got one for himself.   Read More

TiVo stock up 50% this year. Hot new features. Music, Videos, Movies...  Full interview

In case you didn't hear, TiVo's gone high-def, and it's finally at a price everyone can afford. The company's HD DVR can record 20 hours of HDTV shows (180 in standard-def), even recording two HD shows at once. In addition to the cable channels, the DVR can download movies and TV episodes from Amazon Unbox. Forgot to set it to record that Happy Days reunion? Just schedule the recording via the Net.   Read more

Have you ever wanted your own TV channel? Well, now you can have one if you have a broadband Internet connection and a few friends and family members with TiVo digital video recorders.   Read more

Facing increased competition from cable operators and phone companies that offer digital video-recording services, TiVo is making a bigger grab at a different source of revenue: the pile of money that marketers are throwing at companies that promise fresh insights into TV-viewing habits.   Read more