Earlier today, TiVo announced their third quarter financial results. Along with the usual financial numbers (which I honestly find kind of boring), TiVo’s CEO (Tom Rogers) spoke about a number of different topics which are worth mentioning.
In terms of the DirecTV partnership, Rogers said that TiVo is on track to launch next year. Hopefully this time TiVo will follow through on their promise. I know that there are a lot of people out there who are extremely interested in getting their hands on a satellite capable TiVo DVR.
During the quarter, we also continued our progress with our domestic mass distribution efforts. The new DIRECTV TiVo HD DVR is on track for launch next year, and we believe this will provide DIRECTV’s 18 million plus subscribers with the best way to experience television.
In addition to DirecTV news, Rogers also spoke about TiVo’s partnership with Best Buy. According to Rogers, TiVo has been working with BestBuy to incorporate BestBuy’s digital content into TiVo’s DVR package (Napster or an Insignia TiVo DVR?).
On the TiVo-Owned side of the business, Best Buy shares our excitement about our strategic marketing relationship that is set to kick-off early next year. Our development work to create unique user interface elements for the Best Buy launch is nearing completion and will be timed with Best Buy’s strategic marketing initiatives early next year. Additionally, we look forward to working with Best Buy to integrate its recently announced digital content through the TiVo service
Along with BestBuy & DirecTV, TiVo also announced that they’ve formed a partnership with Google. Now before you get all excited, you should note that this partnership simply means that Google plans to leverage TiVo’s user data within their TV advertising program.
“In addition to our ongoing efforts to increase distribution of our products, we continue our efforts to provide the media world with advanced interactive television advertising and research. In particular, earlier today we announced that we entered into an audience research agreement with Google whereby Google will license and integrate TiVo television viewing data into its measurement of audiences for advertisements sold through the Google TV Ads(TM) platform. This agreement will enable Google to draw on TiVo’s anonymous, second-by-second DVR viewing data solely for the purpose of measuring ads sold through the Google TV Ads platform. Teaming with Google is an important milestone and a validation of the merits of our audience research business.
On the international front, TiVo also announced that they will soon be available to Virgin television subscribers in the UK. This is obviously big news considering the fact that Virgin has nearly 4 million subscribers in the UK!
On the international distribution front, we made significant progress since last quarter in our ongoing efforts to expand our global reach. Today, we announced a long-term, strategic partnership with Virgin Media, one of the largest international cable operators and the UK’s single largest cable system, to offer Virgin Media’s nearly four million UK customers TiVo’s advanced television software and user interface on both its traditional and DVR set-top boxes, including TiVo’s broadband to the television capabilities.
Last but not least, Rogers also mentioned that TiVo has been spending research and development dollars to improve the TiVo experience. Specifically, Rogers said that TiVo has been working on a keyboard remote! This isn’t the first time that TiVo has mentioned a keyboard remote. I know there are a lot of people out there who have requested this feature so hopefully we’ll see something soon (CES?).
“To that end, while the ongoing expansion of our global footprint underpinned by our DVR intellectual property form a valuable foundation for the company, we expect the opportunities presented by broadband connections to the TV to create some very interesting product opportunities for our next generation TiVo products and services. TiVo continues its leadership in the development and formulation of advanced television features and we have begun to accelerate the level of investment around various research and development initiatives which we currently consider the best use of our substantial cash resources.
“One small example of these efforts is a new keyboard remote control that we are developing, which will build on the ease of the original TiVo remote control and will enable users to get even more out of the broadband experience that TiVo delivers.”
A hint at a series 4 or a UI refresh would have been nice. Maybe at or just after CES next year.