TiVo on Monday disclosed its plans for next month's IBC, which will see it showcasing its solutions for pay-TV operators via private briefings for invited attendees. According to the company--which over the past year or so has secured a number of new deployment deals with pay-TV operators, including RCN and Suddenlink in the US, Virgin Media in the UK and ONO in Spain, and which says that its IBC presence will provide a "special opportunity for key industry executives to experience why leading pay-TV companies are partnering" with it--it plans to use the IBC to showcase its "full suite of products for satellite, DTT and cable operators," including its "next-generation hybrid software platform that seamlessly blends traditional linear television and OTT video content into a single, easy to navigate, high-definition user interface."
The company is billing its new operator deals as evidence of its "successful evolution from pioneer of the PVR to major provider of software for all kinds of set-top boxes." It says that it will use the IBC to showcase various "current and future" capabilities that enable operators to embrace hybrid TV "in a cost-effective and strategically sound way." According to the company, those capabilities include:
- Its HD, Adobe Flash-based user interface, which it bills as "seamlessly blend[ing] linear television content with a wide variety of Internet video content, in an elegant, easy-to-navigate, single package."
- Its universal search and browse capabilities, which encompass linear TV, cable VOD and "MSO-approved OTT."
- Its whole-home DVR solution, which it says extends its user experience to non-DVR set-tops, PC's and connected TV's.
- Its ability to interconnect with mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry.
- Its ability to recommend content based on users' previous viewing habits.
- Its support for third-party applications via Java and Flash, which it bills as "opening the door for limitless expansion of what TiVo can bring to the television screen."
- Its advertising and measurement capabilities.
In other TiVo news: Semiconductor company, Broadcom, is trumpeting the role of its Bluetooth technology in powering TiVo's new TiVo Slide remote control, which incorporates a slide-out QWERTY keyboard (see the article published on itvt.com, August 23rd).