TDS Telecom has signed on to launch TiVo’s next-generation platform to cable and wireline subscribers across its footprint beginning this week, allowing its customers to easily access traditional pay TV and online services through their remotes.
TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform will allow TDS to deliver hyper-personalization, advanced search and recommendations, voice control, seamless discovery across linear, over-the-top, on-demand and cloud-DVR platforms, with multi-screen capabilities via a cloud-based, device-agnostic service.
“TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform helps TDS deliver the very best in entertainment to our customers,” said TDS Telecom vice president, marketing & product development Julie Maiers in a statement. “TDS is committed to the advancement of innovation, and TiVo’s industry leading solutions bring us the rapid feature velocity and agility to stay ahead of the competition in an ever-changing media landscape.”
TDS Telecom hasn’t decided when it will launch the TiVo product, but Maiers said in an interview that it would likely be on one of the company’s larger markets.
“It will be a gradual roll-out,” Maiers said. “Not all of the timelines are worked out. We still have a lot of work to do.”
TDS has offered IPTV service for years but this is the first time it will use a TiVo service.
“We’re extremely excited to bring this product to our customers,” Maiers said.
TDS’s video solution will include a full suite of IPTV solutions, including IPVOD, IP linear, start-over/catch-up and nDVR. TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform will power a consistent experience across many devices including managed Android TV set-top boxes and unmanaged consumer-owned streaming devices like Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, iOS and Android mobile devices.
The product also utilizes Nokia’s Velocix Media Delivery Platform.
“We’re delighted to be working closely with TiVo and TDS Telecom to deliver a truly compelling entertainment experience to TDS subscribers,” said Nokia VP of sales Scott Cohen in a statement. “The combination of Nokia’s Velocix Media Delivery Platform and TiVo’s User Experience is an ideal choice for anyone interested in a pre-integrated, best-of-breed IP video solution that can power cloud DVR, linear, and video on demand services on every consumer screen.”
Related: TiVo Goes Device-Agnostic with New Platform for MVPDs
TiVo first announced the Next-Gen Platform at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Since then it has signed up operators like Service Electric.
“We are thrilled to partner with TDS Telecom and bring our industry-leading innovations and must-have features to their customers,” said TiVo senior vice president and general manager, user experience Michael Hawkey in a statement. “TiVo’s robust product portfolio provides the flexibility, scalability and next-gen IPTV services that will enable TDS Telecom to better anticipate and address constantly evolving consumer behaviors and needs.”
Headquartered in Madison, Wis., TDS Telecom is the seventh largest local exchange telephone company in the country and has about 1.2 million revenue generating units, a combination of video, voice and telephony customers, in nearly 900 communities in 24 states. Overall, TDS Telecom has about 50,000 wireline video customers and 70,000 cable video customer across the country.
Its parent Telephone and Data Systems provides wireless, cable and wireline broadband, TV and voice and hosted and managed services to more than 6 million connections nationwide through its businesses U.S. Cellular, TDS Telecom, OneNeck IT Solutions LLC, and TDS Broadband Service. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago, Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. employs more than 9,900 people.
