TiVo’s Cable Show Booth Unveils Two New Content Partners

Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 by MegaZone

TiVo Booth Cable Show 2012 - 7 It pays to observe carefully, you never know what you might spot. Like this photo that I snapped of something I noticed in TiVo’s booth at The Cable Show 2012 today. It is the kind of thing your eyes might just skim over, just typical booth decoration. But look closely – did you catch it? Well, more specifically, did you notice the two new content partners?

If you spotted EPIX and Aol HD, congratulations. Neither of those have been previously announced – even at this show. After I spotted those I asked Jim Denney about them and he seemed a little surprised that they were on the wall too, but said that since they’re clearly visible they were fair game. He couldn’t tell me much, but did say that the EPIX deal would probably be tied to MSO-provided units as EPIX is similar to HBO Go in that your cable provider has to have a deal with EPIX to enable access. You can see the currently supported providers & devices on their site. I’ll note that Charter & Suddenlink, two MSOs distributing TiVo HW, are on the list. So I think we can guess those are the likely MSOs to receive EPIX on TiVo.

Aol HD on the other hand will be a retail play, joining Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, et al. Aol HD is currently available on select Sony and Samsung devices, Roku, Google TV, Boxee, DivX TV, and Yahoo! Connected TV devices – and apparently coming soon to TiVo. As one of their recent press releases put it:

AOL HD features high-definition technology, lifestyle, celebrity and entertainment content updated daily from properties across the AOL Huffington Post Media Group, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Translogic, Moviefone and Huffington Post Celebrity.

Expect both of these to be on the TiVo Premiere family, and likely not on earlier models.

I also noticed that Cox is missing from the Operator Partners list, but I don’t read too much into that. TiVo said they’re still working on their VOD support, but since they haven’t launched anything yet I can understand why TiVo wouldn’t be touting them on their booth.

Though I did confirm with TiVo that the deal with Canal Digital in Europe has basically fizzled out, as I previously covered. Nothing official has been announced, and I don’t expect anything to be said – companies generally don’t announce when deals wither on the vine. Like I said before, it is a setback, but nothing earth shaking.

Here’s a gallery of a few photos I shot in and around TiVo’s booth today:





Again, if you have questions you want me to ask TiVo, or any other exhibitor at the show, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • http://www.twitter.com/davezatz Dave Z

    I dunno… there’s been NO mention of Cox or TiVo by the other in the last year or so of quarterly reports. I’d say it’s dead. And, if so, I’d say the two probably need to alert their shareholders to any change in their status.

  • http://www.twitter.com/davezatz Dave Z

    I dunno… there’s been NO mention of Cox or TiVo by the other in the last year or so of quarterly reports. I’d say it’s dead. And, if so, I’d say the two probably need to alert their shareholders to any change in their status.

  • http://www.twitter.com/davezatz Dave Z

    I dunno… there’s been NO mention of Cox or TiVo by the other in the last year or so of quarterly reports. I’d say it’s dead. And, if so, I’d say the two probably need to alert their shareholders to any change in their status.

    • http://www.gizmolovers.com/ MegaZone

      TiVo did make a public statement that the Cox project is still ongoing last October, on Facebook: http://www.gizmolovers.com/2011/10/13/whatever-happened-to-cox-comcast-ondemand-support-on-retail-tivos/

      I suspect Cox decided to let Comcast take the lead, like they did on the soft-TiVo project.  Let Comcast’s deep pockets work out the bugs for them.

  • Fanfoot

    Wow, AOL HD!  Thank the lord.

    No seriously, no mention of Amazon Prime or HBO Go?

    • http://www.gizmolovers.com/ MegaZone

      Remember that they didn’t intend to announce Aol HD or EPIX, it was kind of a goof having them on the booth wall.   They haven’t made an official announcement.

      And they don’t have anything official to say another Amazon Prime or HBO Go at this time.  Just that they’re aware of the demand and would love to support them as well.  

      Which, using my magic decoder ring, I read as “We have to get the business deals in place first” for HBO Go and “We’re stuck waiting for Amazon to give us some developer attention just like we were with Hulu Plus” for Amazon Prime Streaming.