Tivo Taps Web Video for Season Pass

DVR Vendor to Integrate Web, Traditional Video

By Jon Hemingway -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/7/2008 4:53:00 PM

TiVo subscribers will soon be able to watch Web video on their television sets by using the company’s Season Pass functionality.

By using Season Pass -- which allows viewers to subscribe to all of the episodes of a program during a season -- users can utilize an on-screen guide to navigate Web-video sources and subscribe to content using RSS feeds. Users will have access to a variety of video options such as clips from Comedy Central, network news feeds and independently produced material. The video will be automatically updated on a user’s "Now Playing" list with their recorded television shows. Users will also be able to access their personal videos on their computers.

"Now that TiVo has made retrieving Web content easier than ever by integrating it with the popular Season Pass technology, consumers can enjoy great Web video as if it's a whole new set of TV-program options,” TiVo vice president of content services Tara Maitra said in a statement. “And if the writers' strike goes on, these options on the TV set may become more important to many viewers even more quickly."

The new Web service requires the TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 update which will be available in March for $24.95, or free as an upgrade.

TiVo has been positioning itself to be a “one-stop” provider of various forms of entertainment content through traditional video services and over the web. It has partnered with Amazon to provide content for download through the web retailers Unbox service.

"TiVo is building toward the dream of providing one stop for all content, through one box, integrated into one interface, accessible through one simple remote control,” TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers said in a statement, “With TiVo providing this web video feature, along with 20,000 Amazon titles, millions of songs, thousands of music videos, and an enormous collection of photos, we have already gone a long way toward building out the dream."

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