Tivo Signs Deal With Comcast

Chappy01 writes "TiVo has inked a long-term deal with Comcast, America's largest cable television operator, to develop a version of the TiVo service that will be offered to Comcast's DVR subscribers. The deal calls for TiVo to adapt its software to work on Comcast's existing DVR platform, and it allows TiVo to extend to Comcast subscribers the advertising it sells in the form of interactive video clips that automatically appear in the TiVo menu." From the article: "The move will increase TiVo's presence in American homes as it faces competition from generic DVRs offered directly by leading cable companies. Comcast Corp. expects to begin marketing the new DVRs, which will carry the TiVo brand, by mid- to late 2006." News also available from MSNBC and the Official Tivo Site.

Phone line needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it still need to connect to the phone lines these days? You'd think Comcast, with their digital service, could stop having to tie up the phone at strange hours of the night.

is it a good thing or a bad thing...

[enrico_suave]

Well if your a TiVo shareholder, obviously this seems like a good thing, but is having TiVo further in bed with content creators/delivery industries a good idea for consumers?

The one really cool thing that I hope comes of this, is some more traction for bidirectional CableCards leading to uber standalone HDTV tivos... which hopefully inturn leads to bidirectional CableCard PCI tuners for PCs (I can dream, can't i?)

e.

Let's hope it benefits Tivo.

[bigtallmofo]

I'm a fan of Tivo, but I think any impartial observer would note that Tivo would've definitely been negotiating from a position of weakness. Here's to hoping that they were able to negotiate a deal that would be profitable for them despite them needing Comcast much more than Comcast needed them.

Since the stock is currently up 49.52%, it would appear that a lot of people think this really will benefit them (or there are a lot of shorts panicking and covering their positions).

Yes.

[mekkab]

As long as the product lines can remain distinct, Tivo gets the best of all worlds: MONEY, exposure through Comcast, and the ability to continue to have a full functioning stand alone DVR (i.e. no "unrecordable content", etc.)

However, if they follow the Sony model (where the home electronics suffer becuase of concerns from the content side*), they're doomed.

*After I learned my friends SONY surround sound system couldn't play CD-Rs, I decided Sony had gone too far.

Re:is it a good thing or a bad thing...

[enrico_suave]

"Isn't it better than if Tivo went away completely? Gotta play with the big boys sometimes."

Well, if my TiVo all of sudden is "upgraded" so that I can't fastforward through commercials on Comcast owned stations/programming... I won't care anymore how succesfull they are as a company, i'll cancel my subscription.

You're point is well taken though, without the overpriced 13 buck service my tivo would be a paper weight (although that's not entirely true, but for the context of the discussion it is) so of course i'd like to see TiVo continue to do well and provide the service/software/experience on my series 2 tivo... but based on their prior actions I'd hope for them to keep the end user/customer in mind while at the same time keeping in the black =P

e.

How about a Tivo logo for the icon?

[Anonymous Coward]

We do enough Tivo stories here...

Comcast's Tivo will be the target

[BlakeCaldwell]

Comcast's Tivo will be the target of Hollywood, just like Napster was the target of the RIAA, despite the alternatives.

The service will slowly degrade down to a pay-per-view or points system. You won't be able to use it to record shows that don't want to be recorded, and you won't be able to fast forward through commercials. ... Despite the occasional driver-related crash, I'm very happy with my MythTV box [blogspot.com], which, as long we have analog, can't be shut down.