San Francisco — Many people who love watching their favorite television programs live and are often saddened when they miss out their much loved television shows, but now they need not feel bad about it. Also if you have the tendency of forgetting to schedule your TiVo DVR box, and only remember while out and about, then you can leave all your worries to TiVo! TiVo has launched a new mobile site, which brings relief for those who miss to record the big game or their favorite sitcom, as the news service enables customers to program their Series 2 and Series 3 DVR from a cell phone, even when they are away from their home.
More specifically, TiVo Mobile users can program recordings straight to their TiVo box from their mobile phone. The TiVo Mobile is a free mobile phone-optimized Web site that allows subscribers and non-subscribers to browse, search and discover television shows regardless of mobile platform, carrier or browser.
TiVo is looking to extend the appeal of its existing service by launching the beta version of its new mobile Web site that aims to give people the ability to record their favorite programs while they are away from the house.
The TiVo Mobile service allows users to access the site with any Internet-enabled phone through any network. The company expects TiVo Mobile to open up the service to millions of cell-phone owners.
“TiVo started out making television a more convenient, personal experience, and this is the next step to give television lovers total control over their media,” said Jim Denney, vice president of product marketing at TiVo. “Whether you are standing in line at the bank or talking about a new show with friends at dinner, you can now find and record shows whenever, wherever — a perfect tool for everyone.”
Developing on TiVo’s established ease of use, the mobile service is optimized for simple but effective interfacing through a small screen and enables visitors to search for programs by actor, title, director, and keyword.
Any user regardless of the network carrier will have access to programs. The service basically allows users to schedule recordings directly from their mobile phones on their Series2 and Series3 TiVo boxes.
It also offers additional functions including Daily Recommendations and Most Popular, and, much like TiVo’s recommendations engine, the TiVo Mobile site features an “If you like this…” tool to help users discover new shows that fit with their preferences.
“What TiVo actually does is show us what the other companies are going to do 12 months from now,” said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. “So look for the other companies to do this in 12 to 24 months.”
TiVo owners can program their DVRs remotely via the company’s main website. Additionally, Slingbox owners can also access any DVR remotely via the SinglePlayer Mobile software which is currently made available for Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian smartphones. TiVo Mobile joins a set of service features available to TiVo lovers — including content from Amazon Video on Demand and Jaman, as well as videos from YouTube direct to the TV set. This December, TiVo is making available thousands of streaming movies and TV show episodes from Netflix. This allows users to transfer their shows to an Apple’s iPod or to Sony PSP.
“TiVo is clearly an innovative leader. If they had not been such a leader, they would have been wiped out by the DVRs that are sold by the cable and satellite companies,” Leigh said. “It costs a lot more to buy a TiVo unit than it does to pay a $5 monthly fee to a cable operator.”
Leigh finds it interesting that TiVo is an example of a company whose name has become a verb, yet still does not command the market share it should, given what it has accomplished on the innovation front. “The DVR service from cable companies is not as good, in my opinion,” he said, “but the typical consumer takes the path of least resistance.”
Those interested in exploring the new mobile site can do take a glance by visiting m.tivo.com, and those who wish to program their DVR boxes remotely can use it to schedule TV recordings directly through their mobile phones.