Talk about heavy petting. Cox and TiVo are out this morning with an announcement that the two have worked out a deal to offer TiVo’s software on Cox’s cable platform. This is getting as interesting as an episode of HBO’s Big Love (which is supposed to begin filming season two this month). Except instead of Bill Paxton’s character Bill Hendrickson and his three wives, TiVo has now shacked up with two cable companies and a satellite provider. And of course, just like Big Love has it’s villan in Roman Grant, TiVo too has their villan in Echostar and their DISH Network.
Ok, I’m reaching here, but PVR Wire did call it a honeymoon. Dave Zatz here.
According to Reuters TiVo will begin offering their customized software on Cox’s platform beginning in early 2007. They have a previously announced deal also scheduled to come online with Comcast in 2007 as well.
No word on the specific details — like storage space or HDTV or whether or not you will be able to use TiVo2Go with these platforms to offload content onto your laptop or portable device, etc. etc. But TiVo has been putting a lot of effort over the past year into developing this software. Somehow I doubt though that it’s going to have features as rich as TiVo’s standalone Series 3. Of course TiVo Series 3’s will (likely) only have uni-directional CableCARD support so standalone users might miss a lot of the video on demand and other stuff that Comcast/Cox proprietary boxes with TiVo software will likely have. Sort of a damned if you do damned if you don’t deal most likely.
And speaking of TiVo’s Series 3, no word on that gadget of all gadgets which Engadget leaked photos of yesterday and which PVRBlog says there is now a mailing list out for.
This is certainly another feather in TiVo’s cap. Although some might say that after the spectacular beat down that DISH Network’s been taking over the past few months in court, that all of this is just well spent protection money on Cox’s part. Sounds like an episode of the Sopranos. After all, Cox wouldn’t want to be screwed like DISH who’s now spent a boatload of cash on lawyers, owes TiVo $90 million and is likely to have their PVRs turned off on their customers.
And if all this doesn’t feel enough like a commercial for HBO already, just a reminder that on Sunday Entourage will broadcast their season finale. Double check your TiVo and make sure that it’s set to record.
Oh, and if TiVo wasn’t having a good enough day already, Engadget has now officially ended their TiVo death watch. Brilliant!
Did I mention that HBO is going to be an upcoming advertiser on thomashawk.com? Just kidding, of course. I do like their TV better than anyone else’s right now though and I think someone’s switched my Sanka with regular coffee this morning.