TiVo To Broadcast YouTube Videos To The Boob-tube
“The television industry that was once wary of competition has now been bludgeoned by those wacky YouTube videos that 68 million people watch every month.”
Los Angeles – TiVo Inc., the leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), recently announced thousands of its subscribers the availability of YouTube videos on the Boob-tube via a TiVo DVR as it promised in March.
TiVo said it has accomplished the technology to make YouTube videos available on TV sets via its digital video recorder (DVR) boxes.
As part of an earlier agreement with YouTube announced in March (the v9.4 update to TiVo HD and Series 3 set-top boxes, support was added for YouTube H.264 videos) TiVo expects to roll out a software upgrade over the next few weeks that will give broadband subscribers access to the YouTube universe.
Now broadband subscribers with TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs will be able to access the YouTube video universe. Viewers will be able to search by keyword or browse for content under categories such as featured, most recent, favorites or most viewed today.
Whether you like to watch the new up-n-comers, or classic YouTube favorites, TiVo subscribers are in control of the content they want to watch, whenever they want to watch it. It has been added under TiVo Central “Find Programs and Downloads” under the “Download TV, Movies & Web Video” icon. While the only option is currently to “Watch YouTube Videos,” the result is a YouTube experience unique to TiVo.
“The deal between the two is anticipated to play a vast role in coverage of this year’s presidential campaign.”
“With YouTube content now available on TiVo, on top of all the movies, music videos, songs and TV shows that are simply unavailable on cable and satellite, TiVo subscribers have more choice on their TV sets than any other TV viewers in the world," said Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo Inc.
It is TiVo’s first deal for broadcasting online content, though the company has partnerships with 60 Internet sites that provide content to TiVo. Unlike with those relationships, TiVo users would not be able to store YouTube video clips, just watch them and bookmark them for easy retrieval later.
TiVo’s most popular Internet content partner thus far is Amazon Unbox, which features rented movies that are downloaded to TiVo set-top boxes for viewing on TV screens just as if they were recorded TV shows.
Tara Maitra, GM of content services at TiVo, said the company’s users have downloaded 27 million pieces of content from the 60 Internet partners. Beyond Amazon Unbox, product reviews from the likes of CNET and comedy shorts from such sources as the Onion and Break.com are popular.
YouTube on the Web attracts millions of viewers a day, and now TiVo offers consumers the opportunity to experience YouTube content where it is more comfortably consumed — in front of the TV set. TiVo users can now search, browse and watch their favorite YouTube videos through TiVo’s famously easy-to-use interface. Soon, users will also be able to log into their YouTube accounts directly through the TV to access their videos, channels and playlists, making the experience even richer.
Additionally, YouTube has arrived on TV sets just in time for the technology to play a role in this year’s national, state and local elections. Earlier this month, both the Democratic and Republican national convention committees gave voters a chance to win a day on the campaign trail, and possibly a trip to the conventions, by creating videos that reveal which political party they support and why.
YouTube’s RNCC and DNCC convention channels already host content from past conventions such as Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1964 Republican convention and Barack Obama’s address at the 2004 Democratic convention. YouTube’s deal with TiVo should push this year’s envelope even further.
“YouTube brings video where the audience is — across the Web and onto mobile devices, TVs and video games,” said Hunter Walk, YouTube’s director of product management. “The partnership with TiVo extends our ability to make YouTube accessible anywhere and lets people watch what they want, when they want it.”
The agreement is also possibly good news for YouTube’s parent, Google, which has been searching for ways to increase ad revenues in the online video community. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the search giant’s advertising revenue from YouTube is likely to be about $200 million this year, falling short of expectations.
The YouTube site is currently being renovated to give PC users better ways to keep track of the available content. For example, customizable features will allow visitors to move around, remove and replace interactive modules.
The new design also includes personalized recommendations based on past views and favorites. “YouTube users now have a simple answer to the question, ‘What should I watch today?’ as the personalized home page makes it easy to find the content,” Walk said.
For more information on how to view YouTube videos on the TV via a TiVo DVR visit http://www.tivo.com/youtube.