# TiVo Debuts Network PVR - Extends Roamio Experience to the Cloud



## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

http://pr.tivo.com/press-releases/tivo-debuts-network-pvr-nasdaq-tivo-1049446

Bringing TiVo(R) Roamio DVR Experience to the Cloud; Network Recordings Seamlessly Integrated, Easily Searchable via the Brilliant TiVo User Interface; Cloud-Based Management, Lower CAPEX and Control a Key Next Step in the IP Transition for Operators

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS--(Marketwired - Sep 11, 2013) - TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), a global leader in the advanced television entertainment market, today announced that it would debut a prototype of its next generation cloud television offering, which includes new TiVo® features delivered with a Network PVR, during the International Broadcasting Conference 2013 (IBC) in Amsterdam.

The TiVo Network PVR will use TiVo's Emmy Award winning cloud service and is a natural extension of the TiVo solution. This is an important next step for operators as they consider a transition to IP delivered content and utilization of low-cost IP clients and consumer provided devices (tablets, smartphones, etc) with an eye toward enhancing the user experience inside and outside of the home, which is becoming a critical component in the increasingly competitive video market. TiVo's Network PVR extends the TiVo Service and consistent user experience while enabling consumers to easily find, consume and socially share cloud delivered content through the TiVo user interface.

In addition to moving the Roamio experience to the cloud, TiVo would be enabling operators and programmers to manage complex content rights, create multiple tiers of network PVR features, and enable multiscreen policies that accelerate the critical transition to an all IP video world. For instance, operators deploying TiVo network PVR could offer a premium nPVR service with expanded catch-up and save options. The service would also empower programmers to more intelligently target advertising in cloud hosted time-shifted content.

Additionally, TiVo plans to enable new consumer features that enable co-viewing experiences through social networks and recommendations across disparate libraries of content. For example, TiVo's nPVR service would allow a viewer to share a recorded program with an authorized user who missed the show with a few simple clicks of the remote control.

Joshua Danovitz, Vice President, Innovation at TiVo, said, "Operators are becoming more and more focused on the reducing capital expenditure while enhancing subscriber satisfaction across every screen inside and outside the home. TiVo's Network PVR could play an important role in this process as it would bring an experience, which has proven to improve customer satisfaction and operating metrics for global operators, fully to the cloud. This demonstration is a testament to TiVo's commitment to innovations that improve the consumer's ability to access all the content they want, whenever they want it. The natural evolution of the TiVo Service to address network storage is one of the cornerstones of an overall TiVo strategy to deliver an experience that delights the consumer on every screen while driving down pay TV operator costs."

IBC 2013 runs from September 12-17 in Amsterdam. TiVo's booth is located at Stand Number 14.531 / Hall Number 14.

About TiVo
Founded in 1997, TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) developed the first commercially available digital video recorder (PVR). Today TiVo is a global leader in advanced television service for virtually any platform or device. TiVo offers its service directly to consumers, and also distributes its technology and services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite and broadcasting companies. Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single-solution media center by combining its patented PVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable and broadcast content directly to the television. TiVo also continues to weave itself into the fabric of the media industry by providing interactive advertising solutions and audience research and measurement ratings services to the television industry www.tivo.com.

TiVo and the TiVo Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. © 2013 TiVo Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to, among other things, TiVo's prototype of its next generation cloud television offering and Network PVR. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "may," "will," "would," "intend," "plan," or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially include delays in development, competitive service offerings and lack of market acceptance, as well as the other potential factors described under "Risk Factors" in the Company's public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2013, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the periods ended April 30, 2013 and July 31, 2013, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. TiVo disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.


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## severe (Dec 12, 2009)

This sounds promising.


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## ss-stingray (Aug 25, 2013)

I hope this an option. I have a slow DSL that's why I can't sub to Net Flix or watch Utube.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

severe said:


> This sounds promising.


Until you read this paragraph, sure.

_In addition to moving the Roamio experience to the cloud, TiVo would be enabling operators and programmers to manage complex content rights, create multiple tiers of network PVR features, and enable multiscreen policies that accelerate the critical transition to an all IP video world. For instance, operators deploying TiVo network PVR could offer a premium nPVR service with expanded catch-up and save options. The service would also empower programmers to more intelligently target advertising in cloud hosted time-shifted content._

This is where it all goes to crap, because it enables the cableCos to control everything instead of letting you have locally stored content that you can keep and watch as long as you want (on any device) and skip commercials whenever you want. And if their servers or your network is flaky, no TV for you!


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

slowbiscuit said:


> This is where it all goes to crap, because it enables the cableCos to control everything instead of letting you have locally stored content that you can keep and watch as long as you want (on any device) and skip commercials whenever you want. And if their servers or your network is flaky, no TV for you!


But, the whole announcement seems to be talking about a cable company solution and not the Roamio stand-alone product so you would expect the cable companies to be in control. If cable companies wanted to adopt this solution, I think it would satisfy the needs of most customers.


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## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

rainwater said:


> But, the whole announcement seems to be talking about a cable company solution and not the Roamio stand-alone product so you would expect the cable companies to be in control. If cable companies wanted to adopt this solution, I think it would satisfy the needs of most customers.


Agreed. This is a targeted release for the International Broadcasting Conference 2013 taking place in the Netherlands. There is hope that some of the features will make it to the retail Roamios. The social sharing of programs to authorized users sounds interesting.


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## prisk (Nov 19, 2006)

slowbiscuit said:


> Until you read this paragraph, sure.
> 
> _In addition to moving the Roamio experience to the cloud, TiVo would be enabling operators and programmers to manage complex content rights, create multiple tiers of network PVR features, and enable multiscreen policies that accelerate the critical transition to an all IP video world. For instance, operators deploying TiVo network PVR could offer a premium nPVR service with expanded catch-up and save options. The service would also empower programmers to more intelligently target advertising in cloud hosted time-shifted content._
> 
> This is where it all goes to crap, because it enables the cableCos to control everything instead of letting you have locally stored content that you can keep and watch as long as you want (on any device) and skip commercials whenever you want. And if their servers or your network is flaky, no TV for you!


Yeah. The 30-second skip feature will work until you try and skip a commercial. Also, the networks will get to decide what content stays on your "cloud" DVR, for how long and how to restrict its rights. They will also be able to charge you in a whole host of new ways. How many times you watch something. If you move it to a mobile device. If you stream it. How much content you have stored. Maybe charge by number of shows. Or hours. They could prevent you from remote viewing if they wanted. Or restrict streaming to the US only. Travelling overseas? Tough luck. Or maybe pay extra. The possibilities are limitless. Once it's in the cloud, they own and control the whole experience. We will end up paying out the nose for this.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I have little or no use for a "cloud" DVR. I think people should understand we maybe at the high point from a consumer's point of view. I expect we will have to pay more and have less control of video in the future as that is what will make the content providers and distributors more money. 

TiVo (& Replay TV) came along and disrupted the old model but consumers have not bought into owning their own DVRs at high enough numbers to keep TiVo loyal to the consumer instead of the cable companies and content providers. Streaming (IP) video may partially solve the time shifting problem but will certainly force us to pay more for content, either directly or via having to watch commercials again.


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## Keen (Aug 3, 2009)

atmuscarella said:


> I have little or no use for a "cloud" DVR. I think people should understand we maybe at the high point from a consumer's point of view. I expect we will have to pay more and have less control of video in the future as that is what will make the content providers and distributors more money.


++

Once the Roamios get streaming to out of home iPads, I think we'll be at the peak of what current tech and law allows. I'm looking forward to that feature, but I'm perpetually saddened by how limiting copyright law has been on technology around TV and movie distribution and access.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

This could be that browser based thing they showed at the cable show back in June. It was pretty cool. Basically the whole TiVo UI running in a standard web browser. I'm hoping they use this technology to create new "apps" for Android and Win8 so they can expand the current mobile functionality beyond iOS.


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> This could be that browser based thing they showed at the cable show back in June. It was pretty cool. Basically the whole TiVo UI running in a standard web browser. I'm hoping they use this technology to create new "apps" for Android and Win8 so they can expand the current mobile functionality beyond iOS.


If the target is mobile apps then it would make more sense to port the UI from the IOS app, which I prefer to the Roamio UI in any case. But that may be a native IOS implementation rather than an HTML5 app so porting may not be so easy.

More likely an HMTL5 Roamio UI combined with network PVR capability will target very lost cost set top boxes for cable/satellite operators and maybe even Roku/Apple TV etc.. This may even be the start of a transition for Tivo from a device company to a software, content and services company, though I would not expect that transition to be rapid.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Part of the demo was showing the UI running on a Roku. So this HTML5 UI could be used on a whole host of devices to extend the TiVo experience anywhere. Perhaps they will design a more touch friendly one for mobile apps though. As long as it's HTML5 it should be portable to almost any platform.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

As other have said, these services put all the power back into the hands of the cableco's. 

None of these enhancements chanpioned by the content providers are going to improve your access to content. Only control it.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The ONLY thing I see helping us standalone Roamio users is the HTML5 UI. Being able to access your Roamio from, and stream video to, any device with a web browser would be very cool. Especially once they get out of home streaming working.


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

*"TiVo's nPVR service would allow a viewer to share a recorded program with an authorized user who missed the show with a few simple clicks of the remote control."*

This will never happen, the contents providers won't allow it. This is what the "Rebo DVR" (Whatever it was called) did and it was sued out of business. If I remember correctly.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Johncv said:


> *This is what the "Rebo DVR" (Whatever it was called) did and it was sued out of business.*


*

That was ReplayTV. And theirs was a little different. First off it had no protection or authentication. It required you to know some ID of the specific ReplayTV to see their shows, but that was it. You were suppose to only share that ID with friends & family, but a service quickly popped up that aggregated the IDs and the shows on each DVR so you could just search for something and quickly find someone that had it available.

They also got sued over a feature that automatically skipped commercials. Not 30 second skip, but something that detected the start and end of the commercial block and allowed you to skip the entire thing with one button press.*


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

Johncv said:


> *"TiVo's nPVR service would allow a viewer to share a recorded program with an authorized user who missed the show with a few simple clicks of the remote control."*
> 
> This will never happen, the contents providers won't allow it. This is what the "Rebo DVR" (Whatever it was called) did and it was sued out of business. If I remember correctly.


Tivo do qualify their statement as sharing with "an authorized user". It's not 100% clear what that means, but I could see content providers permitted sharing where the shared content is included in a package that the recipient is already paying for.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Johncv said:


> *"TiVo's nPVR service would allow a viewer to share a recorded program with an authorized user who missed the show with a few simple clicks of the remote control."*
> 
> This will never happen, the contents providers won't allow it. This is what the "Rebo DVR" (Whatever it was called) did and it was sued out of business. If I remember correctly.


You mean ReplayTV.

Yeah, I suspect this just means "if you have a Cable Company DVR with cable company X, you can 'share' a recording with your local friend who is also on cable company X".

Basically I guess it will be a 'network DVR' that is really at the cable company offices, with some sort of Tivo UI, that *AT THE networks' consent*, will allow shared recordings (i.e. "put a marker in the other guy's account that it has this show that we really only have one copy of").


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## whynotthisname (Dec 12, 2011)

Hi,

My favorite line from the press release, "The TiVo Network PVR will use TiVo's Emmy Award winning cloud service and is a natural extension of the TiVo solution."

Wow! I didn't know TiVo had won an Emmy for their "cloud service" already!!!


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I didn't even realize they gave out Emmy's for this kind of thing. I thought Emmy's were for acting, writing, etc...


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## mdscott (Jun 26, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> I didn't even realize they gave out Emmy's for this kind of thing. I thought Emmy's were for acting, writing, etc...


TiVo was honored for: Personalized Recommendation Engines For Video Discovery

Along with: John Hey (Adobe), Netflix, YouTube (Google) & Amazon

BTW, Time Warner was honored for: Pioneering Development Of Video On Demand (VOD) Dynamic Advertising Insertion.

These and the other tech awards are presented during CES next January.

michael


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