TiVo Inc.

TiVo Inc.
Public
Industry Digital video recorders
Fate Acquired by Rovi Corporation
Successor TiVo Corporation
Founded August 4, 1997 (1997-08-04)
(as Teleworld inc.)
Defunct 2016
Headquarters San Jose, California, United States
Key people
 Tom Rogers
(President and CEO)
Products TiVo DVR
Revenue Increase US$ 406 Million (2014)[1]
Increase US$ 271.8 Million (2014)[1]
Number of employees
 630 (2014)[1]
Website tivo.com

TiVo Inc. was an American corporation whose primary product is the marketing and subscription services for its TiVo branded digital video recorder. TiVo primarily operates in the United States, but also in: Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom and Western Europe.[2]

History

TiVo Inc. was incorporated on August 4, 1997 as "Teleworld, Inc." by Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay, veterans of Silicon Graphics and Time Warner's Full Service Network digital video system. Originally intending to create a home network device, they later developed the idea to record digitized video on a hard disk.

Teleworld began the first public trials of the TiVo device and service in late 1998 in the San Francisco Bay area.[3] After exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 1999, Mike Ramsay announced to the company that the first version of the TiVo digital video recorder would ship on March 31, 1999, despite an estimated four to five months of work remaining to complete the device.

Teleworld, Inc. renamed themselves to TiVo Inc. on July 21, 1999. TiVo Inc. made its IPO (Initial Public Offering) on September 30, 1999.[4] Its first profitable quarter was the second quarter of 2005.[5]

The original TiVo device digitized and compressed analog video from any source (antenna, cable or direct broadcast satellite). In late 2000, Philips Electronics introduced the DSR6000, the first DirecTV receiver with an integrated TiVo DVR. This new device, nicknamed the DirecTiVo, stored digital signals sent from DirecTV directly onto a hard disk.

In early 2000, TiVo partnered with electronics manufacturer Thomson and broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting to deliver the TiVo service in the UK market.[6] This partnership resulted in the Thomson PVR10UK, a stand-alone receiver released in October 2000. In January 2003, After poor sales, TiVo pulled out of the UK market,[7] officially their manufacturing contract expired, however it was more likely because Sky, who were the exclusive distributor of TiVo in the UK, launched their own TiVo-like DVR product called Sky+ which they heavily promoted to their customers.[8] Sky+ is still the dominant DVR product in the UK with 5,005,000 customers using Sky+ HD service in 2013.[9]

In June 2005, veteran media executive Tom Rogers was named president and chief executive officer of TiVo Inc.[10] Rogers, a TiVo board member since 2003, took the reins from TiVo co-founder Mike Ramsay. Under Rogers' leadership, TiVo has transformed itself from just a DVR into a complete in-home broadcast, cable and broadband media hub and an ally to the traditional media businesses with its innovative ad solutions and television measurement services.

In 2006, TiVo, Inc. won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology.[11]

TiVo was again awarded an Emmy in 2013 for Technical and Engineering Achievement for Personalized Recommendation Engines for Video Discovery.[12]

On April 29, 2016, Rovi announced that it had acquired TiVo Inc. for $1.1 billion. The combined company will operate under the TiVo brand, and hold over 6,000 pending and registered patents.[13][14] Rovi plans to discontinue in-house hardware production, and focus primarily on licensing its technologies and the TiVo brand to third-party companies.[15]

On September 8, 2016, the acquisition by Rovi Corporation was completed.

Acquisitions

On January 27, 2004, TiVo announced the acquisition of Strangeberry Inc., a small Palo Alto based technology company specializing in using home network and broadband technologies to create new entertainment experiences on television[16]

On July 17, 2012, TiVo announced the acquisition of TRA, Inc., an audience measurement company that measures advertising effectiveness. Renamed TiVo Research and Analytics, the service now matches television exposures from 1.5 million TV homes with actual purchase transactions to determine the effectiveness of TV advertising.[17]

On January 29, 2014, TiVo announced the acquisition of Digitalsmiths, a cloud-based content discovery and recommendation service for Pay-TV.[18]

Partnerships

On November 25, 2009, TiVo re-entered the UK market by announcing a partnership with UK cable company Virgin Media to become the exclusive provider of Set Top Box middleware and user inferface software for Virgin Medias next generation television platform.[19] On November 3, 2010 Virgin Media announced the launch of their first PVR running TiVo software, available in 500GB or 1TB configurations.[20]

By 2012, TiVo services had become a part of 18% of Virgin's TV customer base. By the end of 2013, TiVo reached subscribers in nearly half of Virgin Media‘s 47.1 million homes. In September 2013, Vigin Media became the first pay-TV provider to provide Netflix streaming services, which were integrated into Virgin's service through TiVo set-top boxes.[21]

As of January 2014, TiVo reported having relationships with 18 of the top 25 U.S. operators.[1] All Comcast Xfinity customers using retail TiVo devices have access to Xfinity On Demand. Smaller cable companies in the U.S. and Canada offer TiVo DVRs and TiVo Mini extenders directly to their paid TV customers. These companies include: Atlantic Broadband, Astound Broadband, Blue Ridge Communications, Cable One, GCI, Mediacom, Midcontinent Communications, RCN, Suddenlink, and Wave Broadband.[22]

Litigation

In 2004, TiVo sued EchoStar Corp, a manufacturer of DVR units, for patent infringement. The parties reached a settlement in 2011 wherein EchoStar paid TiVo a licensing fee for its technology.[23]

On January 19, 2010, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against TiVo, Inc. for patent infringement.[24] Both companies agreed to end their lawsuits in March 2012.[25]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Tivo Reports Results for the Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2014". TiVo. February 26, 2014.
  2. ↑ "In which countries is the TiVo Service available?". TiVo. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
  3. ↑ Jim Davis (December 22, 1998). "TiVo launches "smart TV" trial". CNET.
  4. ↑ "TiVo Backgrounder" (PDF). TiVo. January 2008.
  5. ↑ Robert Holmes (August 25, 1995). "Stocks Close Modestly Higher". TheStreet.com.
  6. ↑ Robert Holmes (June 27, 1999). "THOMSON multimedia Chosen by BskyB and TiVo to Launch the UK'S First Personal Video Recorder". PR Newswire.
  7. ↑ Matthew Broersma (February 5, 2003). "TiVo switches off UK sales". ZDNet.
  8. ↑ Patrick Goss (March 3, 2010). "TiVo: Sky partnership caused UK flop". techradar.
  9. ↑ Rich Jaroslovsky (September 11, 2013). "New Do-It-All TiVo Puts TV Everywhere: Rich Jaroslovsky". Bloomberg.
  10. ↑ Emily Church (June 27, 2005). "TiVo taps Tom Rogers as CEO". MarketWatch.
  11. ↑ "Emmy® award-winning TiVo service". TiVo. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
  12. ↑ Jeff Baumgartner (August 12, 2013). "TW Cable, TiVo Join Tech Emmy Haul". Multichannel News.
  13. ↑ "From TV trailblazer to IP afterthought: TiVo bought for $1.1 billion". Ars Technica. Conde Nast Digital. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  14. ↑ "Rovi Buys TiVo in $1.1 Billion Deal". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  15. ↑ "TiVo's new owner isn't that interested in making set-top boxes". Ars Technica. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  16. ↑ "TiVo Acquires Strangeberry". Silicon Valley Business Journal. January 24, 2004.
  17. ↑ Bill Carter (July 16, 2012). "TiVo to Buy Company That Tracks Shopping of TV Viewers". The New York Times.
  18. ↑ Jeff Baumgartner (January 29, 2014). "TiVo To Buy Digitalsmiths For $135 Million". Multichannel News.
  19. ↑ Emma Barnett (March 4, 2010). "TiVo's UK launch could 'make British television personal'". The Daily Telegraph.
  20. ↑ "TiVo and Virgin Media Unveil Interactive iPad Companion App for Virgin Media: TiVo Service". TiVo. September 8, 2011.
  21. ↑ Don Reisinger (September 10, 2013). "Netflix inks first pay-TV provider deal with Virgin Media". CNET.
  22. ↑ http://www.tivo.com/discover/cable
  23. ↑ Steven Russolillo (May 3, 2011). "Dish, EchoStar Settle TiVo Patent Litigation". The Wall Street Journal.
  24. ↑ "Microsoft Corporation v. TiVo, Inc.". RFC Express. January 19, 2010.
  25. ↑ Darren Murph (March 22, 2012). "Microsoft and TiVo agree to drop ongoing patent suits, we ask the world to follow". Engadget.com.

External links

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