TiVo Series2 users with broadband may notice a new feature on their units - look under ‘Find Programs’ and there is a new option at the bottom of the list - TiVoCast! This is a new way to manage your TiVoCast subscriptions right from the TiVo itself. You can subscribe to new content, change the settings for existing subscriptions, and even download individual past episodes. New flexibility for TiVoCast users! Formerly, you had to manage TiVoCast online, or via Showcases that popped up from time to time.

Also, as a first, this feature is actually implemented as an HME application. Selecting ‘TiVoCast’ from the menu seamlessly launches the TiVoCast HME application, allowing TiVo to implement this feature without a software update. And they’ll be able to update this application independently of TiVo software updates - expect to see more features implemented this way.

TiVo’s Director of TiVoCast Operations, E. Stephen Mack, posted the details in his blog.

Monday night The Colbert Report did a bit with Stephen ‘cleaning out his TiVo’, as a pretense to showing the administration reversing themselves over time. It looks like they actually used a real TiVo to get the menus, then PhotoShopped them to get the listings they needed for the bit. Matt Haughey PVRBlog has posted a video of the TiVo bit from the show. He originally posted the video in his Vox blog.

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today reported financial results for its quarter ended October 31, 2006.

The conference call is in a few minutes, but it looks like it was a good quarter. TiVo-owned subscriptions gross additions (as opposed to DirecTV) were up 10% year-over-year (101,000 vs. 92,000), which is the first year-over-year increase in 6 quarters. Overall TiVo-owned subscriptions were up 24% from last year, to 1.6 million. TiVo reported a net loss of ($11.1) million and net loss per share of ($0.12), compared to a net loss of ($14.2) million, or ($0.17) per share, for the third quarter of last year. DirecTV subscriptions declined, as expected, since DirecTV is no longer marketing the TiVo-based systems. So the loss from any subscribers dropping the service or switching to DirecTV’s in-house DVR are greater than what new subscribers were added. Total subscriber base is up slightly to 4.4 million, 11% up from last year.

One important thing to note is that TiVo-owned subscriptions are worth much more to TiVo than a DirecTV subscription. They receive a much higher revenue from direct subscriptions, so the shift to having more TiVo-owned subscriptions in their total is a good thing. Those subscribers can also use the added services which DirecTV hasn’t allowed their subscribers to use.

Online sales increased from 33% of their total sales last quarter to 43% this quarter, and response to the pricing changes they made early in the year have been positive. (The pricing changes from a couple of weeks ago came after the end of the quarter.) However, TiVo did comment that changing pricing to have the same pricing for online and retail purchases allows them to do national advertising, which they began this month.

58% of new sales in the quarter were of the S2DT, and 47% of new subscriptions were for use with analog cable. Analog cable continues to be the largest single segment of TiVo’s user base.

EDIT: From the con call webcast:
- Unsurprisingly, they’ll be featuring the Comcast platform at CES in January. (I’ll be there again.)
- One bit of news on the most recent pricing changes. Since the new pricing on November 5th, 60% of new subscribers have selected 3-year pre-paid or 3-year monthly plans. My response - Duh. They’re the best value by far. And right now 3-years pre-paid cost the same as 2-years, so no one is going to take 2-years pre-paid.
- Single tuner S2s account for about 1/3 of current inventory and they’re selling through a lot of those with the holiday promos. Going forward the focus will be on the dual-tuner products.
- TiVo sees the international market as a large part of their future business. Hmm - maybe they’ll finally get back into the UK?

CABLEVISION, S.A. de C.V. (CABLEVISION), Mexico’s largest digital cable operator, and TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that they have entered into an agreement to distribute the TiVo(R) DVRs and TiVo(R) Service to CABLEVISION’s subscribers throughout Mexico City.

TiVo is heading south of the border! Not counting TGC, which is a separate entity, this is the first time TiVo is being offered in a non-English speaking region. (No, Quebec doesn’t count.) Since they’ve developed a Spanish language version of the UI, that opens some more possibilities for the future as well.

Initially, the service offered by CABLEVISION will utilize TiVo’s standalone DVR hardware platform. CABLEVISION expects to begin marketing bundles that include the TiVo DVRs and TiVo Service in the first half of 2007.

Since the article repeatedly talks about how they’re digital services, I wonder what platform it is. I’d guess the S2DT in conjunction with an external box, since the S3 would be an expensive box to use - and Mexico doesn’t use CableCARD. (Though I suppose they could create a version just for this deployment, I doubt it.) I also note the ‘Initially’, which seems to indicate they’ll be bringing the software to the cable boxes or some other non-standalone platform.

ZNF posted an alternate version of the TiVo Holiday Promo video. I don’t know how he got his hands on it, but it is worth watching.

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) announced today Program Placement, its latest advertising solution that offers advertisers an opportunity through the TiVo(R) Service to insert an ad after a program has played, when there is nothing left to fast forward through. For the first time, advertisers will be able to reach their target DVR audience by purchasing advertising enhancements against specific shows. Burger King Corporation, General Motors Corp., MasterCard Worldwide, The Weather Channel and Court TV are the first companies to take advantage of Program Placement on TiVo. Leading media and advertising agencies, including GroupM’s MindShare, Norwalk, CT-based Media Storm and GSD&M, worked with TiVo to have their clients be the first to use this revolutionary advertising solution.

Yes, TiVo is adding advertising to the system, in much the same way as TiVo Central Promos and the icons that pop up during some TV ads. As with those, this is not force fed advertising - users can choose to watch the promo or not. And it is at the end of the program, so it doesn’t interfere with watching. To highlight key points:

Program Placement advertising, inserted at the end of a recorded program for the viewer who chooses to watch it, can be matched to multiple programs, television series and genres.

I know there are some people who find all advertising offensive and would prefer a utopia of ad-free, free content that they can watch or trade to their hearts content. While that’s a nice concept, here in reality the bills need to be paid and content isn’t free.

I think TiVo has done a great job of keeping advertising unobtrusive for the user, while offering advertisers a new way to reach consumers with unique content. I’d much rather watch a few minute clip of a product I’m interested in being demonstrated than a generic 30-second spot. And if you give me the option of watching promos for things I have an interest in - like movies, DVDs, gadgets, etc - I’ll probably watch them. Heck, I enjoy the CNet TiVoCast content and that’s pretty much a long form ad for the gadgets they review. And it is certainly preferable to ads for things I have no use for. I’m a 35-year old single geek who owns his own home and drives a muscle car - I have no use for feminine hygiene products, children’s goods, AARP, or a minivan, and I don’t drink cheap American so-called ‘beer’. Which is why I love 30-second skip - I just don’t watch ads during my shows. But give me the option to watch a gadget review, or show me the latest in home improvement goods, computing, cars, etc, and I’ll very likely watch your ad. Heck, how about promos like “If you liked the show you just watched, how about these shows?” And let me watch trailers for other programs. I can see a number of uses for this.

For those interested, TiVo’s Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2007 Financial Results con call is this Wednesday, November 29, at 14:00 PT. You can pre-register for the webcast here. They haven’t posted any call-in info as of yet.