itvt

–Company Signs Broadband Video Deal with YouTube
–Omnicom, CBS to Use Company’s StopWatch Research Service
–Company’s Service, Now Offered by Comcast, is in Tech Trials with Cox
–Company Secures Two More Favorable Rulings in “Time Warp” Case

DVR vendor/service provider, TiVo, has generated a fair amount of
news over the past few weeks:

• Last week, it was revealed that its chief marketing officer, Clent
  Richardson, has left the company to become president and CEO of
  Immersion, a provider of touch-feedback technology.

• The company has rolled out new functionality–first announced at
  CES–that allows its customers to subscribe to and watch Internet video
  on their television sets via RSS feeds (note: examples of video content
  currently available via RSS include the “Sesame Street” Podcast, MTV
  News’s “Daily Headlines,” CHTV’s “College Humor,” and new,
  independently produced content, such as that offered by DiggNation
  and Ask a Ninja). It is touting the new functionality as giving
  consumers “access to niche interest and hobbyist videos covering areas
  far more specialized than cable and satellite channels.” In order to
  implement the new functionality, TiVo customers need version 2.6 of
  the company’s Desktop Plus software (note: the software was originally
  developed to enable end-users to convert shows recorded on their TiVo
  box for viewing on portable devices, such as the iPod and the
  PlayStation Portable): the software is available for a one-time fee of
  $24.95 and is offered free of charge to customers who have purchased
  earlier versions. TiVo says that it is working with Roxio to implement
  equivalent functionality on the Mac platform. According to TiVo, end-
  users can now “choose Web videos downloaded on the home PC using
  Web browsers, RSS video clients…or other video download software to
  automatically copy to their TiVo DVR’s Now Playing List alongside
  recorded broadcast and cable TV shows.” To encourage usage of its
  platform’s new Web video capability, the company is providing an
  on-screen guide of select Web video sources, and giving subscribers the
  option of setting up a Season Pass recording of their own personal
  video folders on their PC (i.e. the folders in which they save their home
  movies and video downloads). In addition, the company says that its
  HD-enabled boxes will preserve the original quality of high-resolution
  Web videos.

• Conde Nast-owned magazine, Gourmet, has launched a broadband
  video channel on the TiVo platform. The channel, accessed from the
  TiVo Central menu, offers such shows as “Sara’s Weeknight Meals”
  and “Diary of a Foodie,” as well as promotional video content.

• The company has signed a deal with YouTube that will enable TiVo
  subscribers with broadband-connected Series3 DVR’s (including the
  new TiVo HD DVR) to access YouTube videos directly on their
  television sets. The TiVo-YouTube service is scheduled to launch later
  this year, and, according to TiVo, will enable its subscribes to search,
  browse and view YouTube videos, and will also allow them to log into
  their YouTube accounts directly from their TiVo boxes, so that they
  can easily access their favorite channels and their playlists. “We’re
  delighted to be working with the world’s leading online video
  community so that TiVo subscribers can access YouTube’s popular
  content on the TV via the TiVo DVR,” Tara Maitra, TiVo’s VP and
  general manager of content services, said in a prepared statement.
  “Being able to make available YouTube videos to the TiVo subscriber
  base using one device, one remote and one user interface is another
  major step in our commitment to combine all of your television and
  Web video viewing options in one easy to use service.”

• The company says that two very high-profile companies, Omnicom
  Media Group and CBS, have signed up for its research services. 1)
  Omnicom has purchased a subscription to TiVo’s StopWatch ratings
  service that will enable its subsidiaries, OMD, PHD and Prometheus
  Media Services, to access second-by-second behavioral data on DVR
  customers’ viewing habits. The service–whose other customers include
  NBC Universal, Interpublic, Starcom, Carat USA, MPMA, Crispin
  Porter + Bogusky, Media IQ, and Euro RSCG New York–is based on a
  daily, aggregate, anonymous, stratified and random sample of 20,000
  TiVo households, from which a second-by-second “clickstream” of
  behavior and viewership is collected and assessed. According to TiVo,
  the service’s data is offered via an easily sortable database that is
  designed to track the specific viewership for nationally run programs
  and advertisements in both a live and a timeshifted viewing context: the
  service includes data for Total Viewing, Live Viewing, Timeshifted
  Viewing (less than an hour, 1-6 hours, 6-24 hours, 24-48 hours, 2-7
  days and 7-14 days), Program Ratings, and Commercial Ratings, as
  well as a Commercial Viewership Index. The service uses ad
  occurrence data from TNS Media Intelligence to identify commercial
  spots. “DVR’s are changing the television advertising playing field,”
  Michael Atkin, director of media research at OMD, said in a prepared
  statement. “Having the ability to analyze second-by-second snapshots
  of audience viewing habits provides a clear advantage to our clients and
  can significantly impact the business and creative elements of a
  marketing campaign. TiVo’s StopWatch service allows us to better
  evaluate program and commercial DVR viewing habits at the most
  granular level possible, which, in turn, helps us determine ROI for
  media investments and enables us to better understand what is
  resonating with our clients’ target audiences and what needs retooling.”
  According to TiVo, the deal will also see its advertising team working
  with OMG to “bring their clients the most up-to-date” interactive
  advertising opportunities available on its platform. 2) CBS, meanwhile,
  plans to use the StopWatch service to develop and measure new
  advertising strategies, including learning how to structure pods and
  interstitials in order to better hold audiences’ attention during
  commercial breaks, and developing new promotional strategies for
  building audiences for its programming among timeshifting consumers.
  “As more and more television viewers add the DVR to their home
  entertainment systems and make the transition from linear to non-linear
  viewers, we at the networks must adapt to serve both these newly
  empowered viewers and the advertisers seeking to communicate with
  them,” David F. Poltrack, chief research officer at CBS and president of
  CBS Vision, said in a prepared statement. “TiVo, through its user
  database and its innovative StopWatch research software, offers us the
  opportunity to analyze television viewing behavior and develop
  strategies to maximize the impact of our advertisers’ messages and
  product placement arrangements in this new non-linear viewing
  environment. We also look forward to working with TiVo in the
  utilization of this research resource to enhance our program promotion
  and to gathering valuable feedback concerning the performance of
  these programs.”

  

• Comcast has launched its long-awaited TiVo service in Boston. TiVo
  service, which is running on Comcast’s Motorola DVR’s (TiVo is
  currently working on an implementation of its service for Comcast’s
  Scientific-Atlanta DVR’s) and which costs $2.95 per month (in addition
  to a monthly DVR rental charge), “is the first application running on
  our network that comports with the tru2way platform,” Kevin Casey,
  president of the MSO’s NorthCentral Division, told USA Today. The
  process of adapting TiVo’s platform for Comcast’s networks was
  apparently very difficult: when the companies first announced their
  partnership in 2005, they anticipated that TiVo service would be
  available in most Comcast markets by mid-to-late 2006. The Comcast
  implementation of TiVo’s service does not include the broadband
  content features that have become an increasingly important part of
  TiVo’s business model for its own boxes, nor does it allow end-users to
  transfer their recorded shows to other devices, such as mobile players.
  However, it does include a number of new features, such as the ability
  to keep watching video while accessing the TiVo menu, and the ability
  to conduct searches not only of recorded programming, but of
  Comcast’s VOD offerings. In related news, TiVo says that another
  major MSO, Cox Communications (with which it previously
  announced a deal), is currently conducting technical trials of its service,
  and plans to launch it on its New England networks (note: TiVo has
  been working with CableLabs to ensure that its technology is
  tru2way-compatible).

• Antivirus software company, Symantec, has signed on as the first
  company to sponsor interactive advertising on a TiVoCast program
  (note: TiVoCast is TiVo’s broadband video programming service,
  accessed via the “Showcases” area on the main TiVo menu): during
  CNET’s weekly 15-minute TiVoCast program (offers news and reviews
  of high-tech and consumer electronics products), Symantec is running
  program placements and interactive tags for its Norton product line.
  The interactive tags present viewers with a “thumbs-up” icon during the
  CNET program that they can click in order to obtain more information
  about Norton products: the program is paused while they access that
  information, and, once they are done, they can return to the point in the
  program at which they left off. The information is presented in a
  branded Norton showcase that features long-form content and a special
  offer.

• The company has signed a deal with Internet movie service,
  Jaman.com, that it says will allow end-users with broadband-connected
  TiVo Series2 and Series3 boxes to browse and rent or purchase movies
  from Jaman’s library (movies will be priced from $1.99, though a
  selection of content will be available free of charge). TiVo describes
  the new feature, which it says will launch in the coming months, as a
  “perfect complement” to its existing Amazon Unbox service.

In related news: DISH Network (formerly EchoStar) says that it will
appeal to the US Supreme Court a recent ruling by the US Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, which denied
DISH’s request for a hearing en banc of that court’s January 31st
confirmation of a lower court’s ruling that DISH/EchoStar must pay
TiVo $74 million in damages in the so-called “Time Warp” patent case
(note: the January 31st ruling did, however, overturn the lower court’s
ruling that DISH/EchoStar had infringed on the patent’s hardware
components). The patent dispute between TiVo and DISH dates back to
2004, when TiVo sued EchoStar, alleging that it was violating its US
patent, #6,233,389 (i.e. the “Time Warp” patent), which was granted to
the company in May, 2001. The patent describes methods for recording
one program while playing back another, and for watching a show as it
is recording, as well as a storage format that supports “trick-play”
capabilities, such as pause-live-TV, fast-forward, rewind, instant
replays, and slow motion.