Las Vegas – International CES – TiVo said it will show off a prototype of a network-based DVR here at the annual CE conference, presenting the progress it has made since announcing plans for the cloud-based offering last September at the IBC show in Amsterdam.
TiVo noted that many of its features for its traditional DVR products are already delivered from the cloud. Adding network-based storage to the equation is the “easy part,” Joshua Danovitz, TiVo's VP of innovation, said, in a statement.
In addition to moving Roamio, TiVo’s current generation interface and service to the cloud, a network-based approach will also help operators and programmers manage complex content rights, enabling them to create catch-up TV services and other new tiers, and to splice targeted ads shows that are recorded in the cloud.
"With an increasingly complicated entertainment landscape that includes a multitude of content choices, sources and devices, both consumers and operators are challenged to find the appropriate means to navigate the burgeoning content. TiVo is once again defining the landscape of how viewers will consume entertainment, and how pay TV operators provide the best in class user experience,” he added.
TiVo said its nDVR will enable it to extend its service and user interface on multiple devices, including smartphones and tablets, calling it an “important next step” as operators consider their IP video transitions.
TiVo has not announced any customers for its nDVR. It showed off an early version of its vision at IBC last fall that tied TiVo’s cloud-based platform to Harmonic-made multiscreen transcoders, adaptive streaming packagers and streaming media servers. At the time, TiVo claimed to have several different prototypes of the nDVR working on live production networks around the world, but didn’t identify those partners by name.
Examples of TiVo’s pay–TV partners in the U.S. and around the globe include RCN, Suddenlink Communications, Mediacom Communications, Virgin Media/Liberty Global, ONO of Spain, and Sweden’s Com Hem, the first cable operator to use TiVo in an IPTV environment.
