TiVoCast Enters Web Programming Fray

TiVoCast aims to put broadband video from the Internet on users' televisions, and they've lined up a bunch of content partners to launch the service.

DVR pioneer TiVo today announced TiVoCast, which the company is billing as a “revolutionary” new service which puts broadband video content from the Internet and Web on users’ televisions. To launch the service, TiVo has struck agreements with 10 content providers to offer Web video programming.

“The range and quality of broadband video is exploding on the Web, but it’s not TV until it is on the TV,” said Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo. “With the TiVoCast service, we are once again transforming the television experience by bringing the rapidly expanding array of video content on the Internet into the living room.”

TiVo plans to add TiVoCast to the Showcases area on TiVo’s subscriber services by the end of July; it will be available to any TiVo Series2 DVR with a broadband Internet connection, which is about 400,000 TiVo owners. (TiVoCast will not be available to subscribers who got their DVRs with DirecTV.) There will be no additional charge for TiVoCast, although both TiVo and its partners will be able to integrate ads into the content.

Content providers on board with TiVoCast at launch include the NBA and WNBA professional sports leagues, video segments from The New York Times, male-focused digital entertainment service Heavy.com, women’s network iVillage, tech news outlet CNET, kids content from Danger Rangers, H20: Hip-Hop On Demand, action sports provider Union on Demand, and gay-themed network Here!, and the video blog outlet Rocketboom. As befitting the Web, most of the new shows are only a few minutes long, such as four-minute NBA video capsules and typical video blog entries. According to TiVo CEO Tom Rogers, no money is involved with the TiVoCast content partnerships, although partners get to keep 100 percent of the ad revenue from their offerings.

The announcement of TiVoCast follows TiVo’s deal with Brightcove last month to enable broadband video content to be delivered to TiVo subscribers.

In unrelated news, cable giant Comcast is apparently ready to begin testing a new service under which Comcast customers will be able to upgrade their existing DVRs to support HD content and use TiVo software rather than existing DVR software supplied with the Comcast set-top boxes.