TiVo to offer P2P video

As more and more people get broadband connections the face of television as we know it is changing. The traditional gatekeepers of content are slowly losing their long held monopoly.

Whether its the cable companies who insist on selling you a thousand channels whether or not you really maybe watch only a handful, television studios who subscribe to a rigid viewing timetable, or Hollywood studios who ultimately control what movies are available, users always get shortchanged in the end.

Well TiVo now plans to be the great democratizer and allow its subscribers the ability to view and share web based or personal home video content. Much like the recently emerging companies such as the Venice Project, TVU, and others, TiVo plans to enter the realm of P2P TV.

This new function will be called “TiVo Cast” and is set to be launched around November 15th. Users will be able to use it to search through subscribed broadband programming or browse through open web based content for viewing.

Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo notes:

For more than 10 years, people have talked about the TV and Internet coming together.The dramatic expansion of video options is being driven by the amount of video now available via the power of broadband distribution.
Not a day goes by without an announcement about some studio, network, programmer, or Internet company providing yet even more video content online. TiVo provides the only approach that brings it all, broadcast, cable, broadband, together into a seamless experience for the viewer.
TiVo is the first to provide one holistic viewing experience where you’ll be able to find what you want, when you want it, no matter where it comes from. These announcements further underscore ‘It’s not TiVo unless it’s a TiVo.

He also rallies against the rigid 22 minute half hour or 44 minute hour that really prevents nonstandard content from getting considered for broadcast.

So what does TiVo plan to offer? Here are a few highlights from their new broadband strategy.

* Unified Search — TiVo unveiled “unified search,” launching next year, whereby consumers can search across broadcast, cable and broadband content sources through an approach that seamlessly integrates all video for easy access, menuing, searching, recording, and viewing. Consumers want content from many different sources and with unified search they won’t need to visit multiple devices to view that content – it can all be easily accessed in one place from the TiVo “Now Playing” list.
* ICM – With broadband video choices, the number of TV options available became overwhelming, and celebrity talent became critical “key words” for viewers finding what they want. TiVo and ICM have teamed up to provide TiVo subscribers with TV show and film recommendations personally selected by some of the most well-known Hollywood actors and directors. These celebrity Guru Guides will offer subscribers the ability to have this content automatically recorded on their TiVo boxes…providing a means by which entertainment talent can establish a direct relationship with TiVo viewers on their TV sets.
* Home Movies Service — Working in partnership with One True Media, TiVo is offering a breakthrough new service feature which will provide friends and families scattered across the country with an easy way to share their home videos, by sending them directly to the television set. Rather than burning and mailing DVDs, friends and family will now be able to set-up their own private channel to send home videos directly to a TiVo subscriber’s TV set.
* Autotranscode — TiVo subscribers who upgrade to this new PC software will be able to easily browse, transfer, and watch a vast amount of Web video, right on their TV sets, using the Emmy Award-winning TiVo service, even if the content is not originally in a format that televisions can display, by autotranscoding that video through their PCs.
* New TiVoCast Service Programming Partners — A fresh group of media companies, including CBS Interactive, Forbes and specialized health content, will deliver broadband programming directly to the television through TiVo’s revolutionary TiVoCast service. Launched earlier this year, the TiVoCast service delivers broadband video directly to the television sets of TiVo subscribers, turning Web video into television by bringing powerful broadband content previously available only on the PC.

Evan Young, TiVo’s Director of Broadband Services, made an interesting statement in a recent address at theStreaming Media West 2006 conference that gives some added insightinto what the future holds for this new effort. He emphasized the point that TiVo has not intention of filtering or discriminating against the web based content you may download,putting it directly into your now playing list.

Whether or not this means you can possibly share or download full length movies, i.e. XVID format for instance, isn’t clear but, with a broadband connection and a mere 700MB file size or so for XVIDs it should be no problem. If you can upload or download movies onto the unit then size or content type shouldn’t be an issue.

TiVo also hopes to create a system whereby people who have content to offer can become “microcasters” and charge a subscription fee to be shared with TiVo. This bolsters the ability of TiVo to offer what cable TV has refused to do for so long, and that is to offer a la carte channels. You can pay for only that which you actually watch and wish to view. No more paying for the MTV3 when you don’t even watch the first 2.

This new overall strategy by TiVo could be just what it needs to stay relevant and better compete against the DVRs that more and more cable companies are offering and at much lower prices.

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

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