TiVo plans more Web video deals
By Danny King -- Video Business, 3/20/2008
MARCH 20 | TiVo is likely to sign more agreements this year that would allow digital video recorder customers to download content from video Web sites to their TVs, after the company struck a deal with Google’s YouTube last week and released its Web-video software this week.
TiVo expects to make “several announcements over the course of the next year” similar to the YouTube agreement, CEO Tom Rogers said yesterday at the Citi Small & Mid-Cap Conference in Las Vegas. “We’re putting together what’s close to the infinite dream of anything you want to get on your TV.”
The company is trying to boost demand by setting up systems allowing videos, TV shows or movies to be delivered to TVs through TiVo set-top boxes. In January, TiVo agreed to allow Comcast’s Boston area customers to search for video-on-demand choices through TiVo devices.
Last March, TiVo customers with broadband connections got access to Amazon.com’s Unbox service. Through Unbox, TiVo customers can download about 25,000 movie and TV titles, Rogers said.
With the YouTube agreement announced last week and TiVo’s Web-video software launch this week, TiVo users with broadband can log into their YouTube accounts to access playlists and favorite channels. YouTube, which was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in November 2006, accounted for one in three videos viewed online in January, according to ComScore. MySpace parent News Corp. had the next highest frequency, at 6%, ComScore said.
Earlier this month, TiVo said its fiscal fourth-quarter loss narrowed by 67% as hardware costs were cut in half from a year earlier, when the company gave away standard-definition DVRs as part of a holiday promotion. TiVo focused on selling its $299 high-def DVRs during this past holiday season.
TiVo had 3.95 million subscribers as of Jan. 31, down 11% from a year earlier, as U.S. satellite-TV leader DirecTV discontinued its licensing deal with TiVo and stopped including the company’s DVRs with DirecTV new subscriptions. TiVo-owned subscriptions were about flat at 1.75 million, the company said March 5.
