TiVo Time-Shifts Company Deathwatch

December 10, 2007 at 11:58 am PT

Time to shelf that TiVo obituary. The “TiVolution” is picking up some new agitators. After years of struggle, the digital video recorder pioneer is back on its feet again with some new partnerships, old partnerships that are finally coming to fruition and a new business.

In the past few weeks, TiVo has signed deals with online photo-sharing services Photobucket and Picasa and the music-and-video network Music Choice. It’s begun fulfilling its contracts with cable outfits Comcast and Cox. It’s entered the media-services market, partnering with NBC Universal to provide second-by-second ratings of programs and commercials, based on the TV-watching habits of subscribers to the company’s digital video recorders.

“We are very much a technology company,” TiVo CEO Tom Rogers told the New York Times. “At the same time, in the last year and a half, we’ve substantially moved in the direction of becoming a media company.” And that’s proven a prudent move for TiVo, where things are beginning to look up. Shares of the company hit a 52-week high of $8.53 Friday. Today they were trading at around $8.35.

Too bad for TiVo that days of the standalone digital video recorder are reportedly numbered. According to Yankee Group, the standalone DVR product category will cease to exist by 2010, “and its dissolution will result in the end of TiVo as we know it.”

Tagged with: Comcast, Cox, DVR, John Paczkowski, Music Choice, Photobucket, Picasa, shares, TiVo, Tom Rogers, TV

comments so far. Add yours.

Yuva Mani

“the standalone DVR product category will cease to exist by 2010″

But we will still need a box in the living room and the TiVo is a tried and proven platform. The future of TiVo is to what Apple TV cannot, which is to be an open media centre box. It has got reasonable penetration and with enough content partnerships it can be the one true living room box delivering content from Amazon, Rhapsody and probably even youtube and hulu in the future.
http://mrfrancophile.blogspot.com Josh Mogal

I don’t know if the quote regarding the end of the standalone DVR by the Yankee Group was sarcastic or real, but when it comes to TiVo, it’s largely irrelevant. Sure it could impact their standalone box development, but it’s their patents and their UI that matter – and that’s why they Cox, Comcast are licensing the TiVo software.

Standalone or not, if someone wants to do a DVR of any sort, they’ll have to come to TiVo for a license. TiVo’s business plan may change over time, but they’ve got a protectable and leverageable foundation in their patent portfolio.

That’s why Dish will soon (if it isn’t already) be knocking on their door begging for a license so that they don’t screw their 2M DVR user base when TiVo wins its patent suit against Dish.