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Wait, TiVo is still around? Apparently it might be include with the AppleTV

By Joshua Schnell Tue, Jul 27, 2010 @ 10:02 AM

56506954 79481333c7 o 300x199 Wait, TiVo is still around? Apparently it might be include with the AppleTVAs a Canadian I don’t really care much about TiVo.  It’s one of those technologies that haven’t been brought to Canada, and it’s still unclear whether it’s because of arcane laws or a decision by TiVo to leave us out in the cold. I felt like a jilted ex-lover back in 2005, but now, not so much. It’s been hard to really care about a company that doesn’t care about us, so I’ve left behind coverage of their business.

But, they have made their way back onto my radar today with a rumour that TiVo is in negotiations with Apple to include their service in the Apple TV software.  It’s interesting on the surface, but seems extremely unlikely when you stop and think about it for half a second.

Why’s TiVo on the Apple TV unlikely?  Apple’s been negotiating with television executives regarding “rented” television shows on iTunes.  It hardly seems likely that they’re going to bring a service that lets you “TiVo” television, when you can download an episode on demand through iTunes.

Could I be wrong? Sure, it wouldn’t be the first time, but I have a hard time seeing Apple taking these sort of steps with their Apple TV.  It’s taking a step backwards technology-wise, and it seems to be counter-intuitive to everything we’ve been hearing about cloud based services from Apple.

But, it didn’t take long for the news to take its toll on stock prices,  according to Electronista TiVo shares jumped 6.5 percent yesterday. It’s obvious that everything Apple touches turns to gold, but bringing TiVo stock up 6.5 percent has to be a new trophy on Apple’s mantel.  No one’s talked about TiVo in half a decade, or at the very least, since Netflix came along.

Photo Credit: HessieBell

Article Via Electronista

  • Charles Blaquière

    Joshua, TiVo is not “one of those technologies that haven’t been brought to Canada”. TiVo has never decided “to leave us out in the cold”. It was never prevented to support the Canadian market “because of arcane laws”.

    TiVo has offered Canadian listings since 2005 — you could buy a TiVo box from the US, plug in your postal code, and enjoy that sweet TiVo goodness. In 2007, TiVo boxes themselves became available in Canada, e.g. at RadioShack and Future Shop.

    Some aspects of TiVo are unavailable to Canadians, due to licensing or technical reasons. Services such as Rhapsody or Amazon on Demand are unavailable because these providers don’t allow Canadian TiVos to access them.

    And HD TiVo boxes can only record OTA (off-the-air) HD broadcasts, so no cable and specialty networks for Canadian HD TiVos. This is because the US FCC mandated that cable operators support CableCards, small cards inserted into non-cable operator devices (like HD TiVos) to unscramble channels you have subscribed to. Apart from a couple of minuscule players, Canadian cablecos do not support CableCard, which prevents third-party devices like TiVo to access scrambled channels. Being locked out of the Canadian cable-TV market is not TiVo’s fault, it’s Rogers’, Shaw’s, and Vidéotron’s.

    In larger markets, where you can receive a couple of dozens of OTA HD channels _for free_, Canadian users of HD TiVos are ecstatic with their DVRs.

    Addendum:

    I couldn’t help but chuckle at the coincidence: right next to the browser tab where I opened your article, which states that “No one’s talked about TiVo in half a decade”, is… a tab from yesterday’s Toronto Star, where its away-on-business TV critic addresses an entire article to his beloved TiVo and how much he misses it. Now _that’s_ comedic timing.