A concerned Cox subscriber contacted me earlier today to find out if I knew anything about the Cox partnership which TiVo officially announced back in August ‘06. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I haven’t heard anything about the partnership in a long time. In fact, the last time I remember reading something about the partnership was in April of this year. Come to think of it, TiVo didn’t even mention the partnership in their most recent financial results announcement. Has the partnership gone away or have I just missed some news?

TiVo Inc. really seems to be making some strides on the international front. Yesterday we received some news about TiVo in Australia and today TiVo sent out the following press release about TiVo in Mexico City. Now if only we could get TiVo on Comcast, Cox & Time Warner :).

ALVISO, Calif., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO - News), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), and CABLEVISION, S.A. de C.V. (CABLEVISION), Mexico’s largest digital cable operator, announced that beginning today TiVo® DVRs and the TiVo® Service are available for the first time to CABLEVISION’s digital cable subscribers throughout Mexico City.

CABLEVISION subscribers can now access the first Spanish language version of the Emmy® award-winning TiVo user interface, which includes internationally recognized TiVo features like SeasonPass(TM) recordings, WishList® searches and TrickPlay functionality, which enables users to pause, rewind, instant replay and slo-motion live TV.

Chief Executive Officer of CABLEVISION Jean-Paul Broc said, “The combination of TiVo’s state-of-art technology and breadth of services with CABLEVISION’s superior digital cable programming creates an unmatched television viewing experience for our subscribers in Mexico City. We are extremely enthusiastic that the opportunity to bring the TiVo service to Mexico City has come to fruition and are confident that the TiVo brand will not only increase customer loyalty but serve as a driver of new cable subscribers.”

“TiVo continues to make sustained progress across international markets and CABLEVISION in Mexico is another example,” said Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo. “Growing our business with the right partners is critical and our strategic distribution relationship with CABLEVISION, and its parent Televisa, is proof of that. TiVo will enable CABLEVISION to further differentiate its pay television service and maximize its programming packages. The combination of TiVo and CABLEVISION will offer the best entertainment experience for subscribers in Mexico.”

CABLEVISION is introducing the TiVo service to Mexico City consumers through a broad-based media campaign including cross-channel and broadcast television, print, online, radio and outdoor advertising. In addition, CABLEVISION plans to leverage its extensive programming assets and celebrity spokespeople to promote TiVo capabilities on air.

TiVo service is being offered to CABLEVISION subscribers as a package with a monthly charge covering both service and box rental.

Don’t forget that tomorrow TiVo is going to release financial results for the second quarter ended July 31, 2007. I’m plan on listing to the conference call so stay tuned for an update on.

Hopefully we’ll hear more about the Comcast & Cox partnerships. I know there are a lot of people out there who are anxious to get TiVo on their cable company DVR.

Todd Spangler has posted an interesting analysis of the catch-22 that TiVo has found itself in. In his article, Todd has come up with a couple of ways that TiVo can survive this dilema. Read on for more information.

Ever since the start of this blog I’ve been saying that TiVo needs to partner with a cable company. Hopefully the upcoming Comcast & Cox partnerships will help bolster TiVo’s position as the number one DVR on the market.

Today, TiVo published their annual report which contains at least two pieces of information that I found interesting. According to the report, TiVo earned $16.2 million in revenue directly from the Comcast TiVo partnership. The report also states that the Comcast and Cox roll outs are expected to launch in FY08.

………. Development and deployment of the TiVo service software solution for Comcast and Cox are expected to launch in initial markets during fiscal year 2008. During fiscal year 2008, we expect to recognize technology revenue associated with the development work from our Comcast and Cox agreements.

Service and Technology Revenues. Our service and technology revenues, which include subscription fees received for the TiVo service, advertising fees, and engineering and licensing fees, increased $47.1 million or 28% during the fiscal year ended January 31, 2007 compared to the prior fiscal year. This increase was primarily due to an increase in our cumulative TiVo-Owned subscription installed base of approximately 235,000 net TiVo-Owned subscriptions during the fiscal year ended January 31, 2007, coupled with $16.2 million in technology revenues from licensing and engineering work recognized from our Comcast Agreement.

The report contains a lot of other useful information which I just don’t have time to go over right now. Feel free to read the report for yourself if you’re into that kind of thing. I may try and summarize the report a little more tomorrow but for now I just need to get to bed since I have to get up early….

Back in May I reported that Cox might license TiVo technology. Well, just today, TiVo and Cox announced a deployment agreement. Under the agreement:

TiVo will customize its cable software for deployment on compatible Cox DVR set-top-boxes. TiVo’s downloadable software will allow Cox to deliver the TiVo® service in Cox subscriber homes without replacing existing DVR boxes, and without an install appointment. In this way, current Cox DVR customers who wish to enjoy the award-winning TiVo service, can quickly and easily add the benefits of TiVo to their DVR subscription.

The service is expected to launch in select Cox markets in the first half of 2007

This is obviously good news for TiVo. Now they have a partnership with Comcast, Cox and DirecTV. I sure do wish I had more stock in TiVo!

Spotted on: ZatzNotFunny (Digg)

According to this thread on TiVo Community, Cox Cable has published a survey that suggests that the company may in fact license TiVo technology for their DVRs.

While Cox currently offers its own DVR service, the Cox DVR may soon be powered by TiVo, and include the features that TiVo owners have come to expect. If Cox were to offer digital cable service with a TiVo branded DVR for about the same price as you are currently paying for satellite service each month, how likely would you be to switch from satellite TV to Cox cable that featured this TiVo branded DVR service?

I don’t think anybody has verified this story however it would be interesting if it turns out to be true.

Thanks Mike!