Rogers: TiVo on Comcast Fully Deployed in New England; National Rollout TBD

DVR Vendor CEO: Cable Operator Methodical; Laying Network Infrastructure to Handle Software Integration

By Jon Hemingway -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/9/2008 2:49:00 PM

TiVo CEO Tom Rogers didn’t offer up any projected timetable for the national rollout of TiVo software on Comcast systems when he addressed a room of investors at the Citigroup Global Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications conference in Phoenix. But the service, which is now available across Comcast’s New England footprint, will be rolled out in other Comcast markets going forward.

The companies unveiled TiVo over Comcast in the fall in Boston and surrounding areas after some delay, and they have been rolling it out across other areas in New England. The availability of the service across all Comcast systems will be determined after some fine-tuning in the initial markets.

“[Comcast’s] plan is to be methodical,” Rogers said, noting that the cable operator will engage in test marketing of packages in the initial rollout to determine what works before going out on a large scale.

Another hurdle is laying the network infrastructure needed to handle the integration of TiVo software on Comcast’s generic digital-video-recorder boxes.

“It’s still in the early stages in New England,” Comcast chief financial officer Michael Angelakis said at the same conference this morning, adding, “We think the product is very good.”

TiVo and Comcast have a multiyear deal that makes available to Comcast customers a downloadable software installation of TiVo that would come as an additional choice to a customer's existing DVR.

The deal -- which TiVo hopes to replicate with other MSOs, as it has with Cox Communications -- will grow TiVo’s subscriber base, but with customers that are lower ARPU (average revenue per unit) because the up-charge by a cable company is substantially smaller than what TiVo can charge on a stand-alone basis (anywhere from $8-$16 per month).

Rogers said the additional revenue opportunity for TiVo will come from advertising, which, he added, should make up the difference.