I guess the Australian press thinks the launch of TiVo down under is a big deal. A new article in Australian IT has a one sentence mention of TiVo: “A network executive confirmed TiVo was in alpha-testing mode.”

That’s one sentence in an article that is mostly about Seven networks new HD content and programming line-up changes. OK, sure, there is another mention in the articles sub-title: “…and early testing under way for its TiVo personal video recorder.”

The article’s title? Seven in TiVo pilot

According to DMNews, TiVo has signed up marketing company Direct Impact for an interactive marketing campaign:

TiVo chose the agency for its experience in interactive branding. Direct Impact will deploy an interactive campaign for TiVo in early 2008.

“We developed expertise on interactive games to drive and deepen relationships with existing customers and also to drive acquisition,” [Tracey Brown, COO of Direct Impact] pointed out. “TiVo read and heard about that and contacted us to see if we had any ideas of unique, fun, interactive games that we could develop for them.”

She continued, “What’s nice about them is they do have a good existing subscriber base, but of course are constantly trying to acquire new customers. We had tons of ideas of how to use interactivity with a game to meet two goals: to strengthen relationships with their existing customer base and make them more loyal, and to use a cool game to drive acquisition.”

The interactive game is a new strategy for driving customer loyalty, Brown said, but TiVo has used interactive promotions, such as sweepstakes, for acquisition in the past.

Direct Impact’s work with TiVo will revolve entirely around interactive media.

It will be interesting to see what they come up with. I really have no idea what kind of game they’d use as a marketing promotion.

Since announcing their partnership with Music Choice at CES 2007 back in January, TiVo has been fairly mum on the deal. Some users started to question if the deal was still alive, or if it had gone the way of past deals with Netflix, JellyVision, et al. TiVo launched Rhapsody support in October, another deal announced at CES, which buoyed hopes that the Music Choice deal was still in progress behind the scenes. Well, it seems it was - and today TiVo has announced general availability of Music Choice on broadband connected TiVo units.

TiVo Boosts Its Robust Broadband Offering With the Addition of the Music Choice Network’s Vast Library of Music Videos & Original Music Programming

“TIVO & MUSIC CHOICE SAVE THE VIDEO STAR” by Giving TiVo Subscribers Access to a Wide Range of Music Videos Featuring Established & Emerging Artists Across Multiple Music Genres

ALVISO, Calif. — December 5, 2007 — TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), and Music Choice, the award-winning multi-platform music network, today announced the immediate availability of Music Choice on broadband-connected TiVo® DVRs. Music Choice will deliver its wide-ranging catalog of several thousand music videos and original programming to the television through the TiVoCast service. At launch nearly a thousand video titles are available and this number is expected to grow significantly in the coming weeks.

“Be it music, movies or memories, our broadband strategy continues to focus on delivering consumers what they want, when they want it,” said Tara Maitra, Vice President and GM of Content Services for TiVo Inc. “By bringing TiVo users Music Choice, we’re giving our subscribers access to the most extensive music offering available, delivering thousands of music videos straight to the TV. We think this service will be extremely popular among the TiVo audience.”

“We are thrilled to make our highly-popular music-related content available to TiVo users,” said Christina Tancredi, Executive Vice President of Music Choice. “This exciting relationship with TiVo allows us to extend the reach of our content to even more consumers across the country, and we’re confident once TiVo users try it, they’ll be hooked.”

By combining the TiVo interface with Music Choice content, TiVo has quickly emerged as the entertainment platform for music lovers. TiVo subscribers will be able to browse through a variety of music genres using TiVo’s easy-to-use and intuitive search interface, breezing through Music Choice content, featuring Rock, Pop, Hip Hop, R&B, Country, Latino, and Kids’ videos, Music Choice Originals featuring today’s hottest established and emerging artists, as well as daily entertainment news clips.

When considering the robust Music Choice offering and the recently announced availability of Rhapsody, with the current Internet radio offering from Live365, TiVo users truly have a 360-degree musical playground. Users can conceivably watch a documentary about an artist, add the artist to a playlist for their mobile device and then watch that artist over and over via music video.

Legendary VJ and music personality Martha Quinn has been at the forefront of music entertainment since her days as one of the most recognizable VJs in the world, and is one of many music lovers excited about the new feature on TiVo.

“From the time I started as a VJ, one thing has been obvious – music fans love to see their favorite artists via videos,” said Quinn, one of the first MTV VJs and now host of a popular Sirius satellite radio music show. “In a way, I see this as a new video revolution whereby fans pick the videos they want to watch and when, both saving and creating the video stars of today. TiVo and Music Choice have delivered exactly what fans have been asking for.”

All of the content on TiVoCast, including Music Choice, is offered at no additional charge as part of the existing TiVo service subscription fee. TiVo subscribers can access TiVoCast content through TiVo Central.

TiVo boxes are available at leading consumer electronic retailers including Best Buy and Circuit City. See www.TiVo.com for details.

Buy Direct and get FREE Shipping on an Unlocked Treo™ 750 smartphone at Palm®! Valid 12/4 - 12/16. The unlocked GSM phone will work with any GSM carrier. The unlocked Treo 750s come with Windows Mobile 6 already installed.

Also, as announced in their blog, the Windows Mobile 6 update for the AT&T Treo 750 is now available. For some of the improvements offered by WinMob6, see this past Palm blog post.

Palm is also running holiday specials:
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For those of you with an Xbox 360, the HD DVD add-on is selling for just $129.98 at ToysRUs.com. Hat tip to EngadgetHD.

I think I know what Blu-ray’s big sales strategy is this holiday season - disc sales! In the past few weeks we’ve seen a couple of buy one, get one free sales, and a buy two, get one free sale. And now we have another buy one, get one free sale at Amazon - this one wth 34 titles to select from. I’m all for cheaper movies - and Blu-ray continues to whip HD DVD in media sales, which is nice.

Australian video rental chains Video Ezy and Blockbuster, both owned by Franchise Entertainment Group, will exclusively rent Blu-ray Disc, and not HD DVD, at their 870 stores, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Paul Uniacke, FEG managing director, said that HD DVD was “missing the boat” in the Australian market. While neither format is dominating the market, Blu-ray has a clear lead over HD DVD. 2241 standalone BD players have been sold, compared to 609 HD DVD players, and over 100,000 PS3s have been sold, compared to only 2,461 HD DVD Xbox 360 add-on drives. Even more telling, 102,000 BD movies have been sold, far more than the 18,000 HD DVD disc sales. The stores will also make an effort to promote Blu-ray:

In an announcement made today, Sony said 40-inch LCD televisions connected to Blu-ray players and PS3s would be installed initially in close to 250 Video Ezy and Blockbuster stores across the country to promote the format.

Picked up from Blu-ray.com.