There’s a new player in the smart TV space, and it’s from an familiar name. TiVo — yes, that TiVo — has teamed up with European manufacturer Vestel for its first TiVo OS-powered smart TV. They’ll first be available on the continent in 2023.
Generally speaking, we should expect the same sort of experience we’ve seen from TiVo Stream 4K, the Android-based dongle the company put out in 2020. That was a decent little device, with a custom user interface trying to make some sense out of the vast streaming space. And the smart TV space certainly hasn’t slowed down, either, with TiVo and Vestel joining the likes of Roku, Amazon Fire TV, LG, and Samsung, which all have their own custom operating systems powering televisions.
“We estimate that nearly 40% of the smart TV market is searching for a truly independent platform like ours, and a supportive industry partner with deep domain expertise,” said Jon Kirchner, CEO of Xperi, which is TiVo’s parent company. “Today, nearly 30 million households worldwide are powered by TiVo through an array of CTV and other partners. We are pleased to have signed our first smart TV partnership for TiVo OS, our embedded operating system and media platform for smart TVs, underlying progress toward our goal of becoming a leading independent TV OS platform supplier.”
Vestel says that the first TiVo Smart TVs will roll out in multiple countries over multiple years, with a multi-million-unit agreement in place.
“Vestel, aligned with is mission of being the ‘retailer of retailers,’ offers a wide range of choices to its customers in terms of Smart TV OS platforms,” said Turan Erdoğan, CEO, Vestel. “TiVo, and its parent company Xperi, have a long history of both championing great customer experiences and creating entertainment ecosystems. We believe that the industry will benefit from a partner-oriented, independent media platform that provides the necessary scale, both in technology and content to satisfy the global media landscape. TiVo has a proven track record in making it easy for consumers to find, watch, and enjoy the content they love. We’re excited about partnering with TiVo to provide a European-focused Vestel Smart TV Powered by TiVo OS to provide consumers the experience they want.”
No word on exactly which countries will be involved, or any specs on any of the televisions, so stay tuned for that.
