Later, in November 2010, the first customer for the solution was announced – Telenor’s Canal Digital. (Telenor also owns Conax.) The plan was to introduce TiVo to Canal Digital Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite customers in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The announcement called TiVo“one of the key pillars” in Canal Digital’s strategy, calling it“the most compelling solution”. Christian Albech, CEO of Telenor Broadcast Holding AS, said“After considering many partners who could help us deliver this promise, we concluded that TiVo was head and shoulders above the rest.” TiVo again cited the deal during CES 2011 alongside their deals with Virgin Media in the UK and ONO in Spain. Virgin Media and ONO have since had successful launches, but nothing more has been heard about Conax or Canal Digital. So what happened?

Well, it seems that things may have not have gone quite so smoothly with Conax, and the romance might be gone with Canal Digital, according to this article from Broadband TV News:

[Director of digital product management at Conax, Tor] Helge Kristiansen admitted there had been difficulties with the March 2010 announcement that would have combined the Conax conditional access system with features from the TiVo platform. However, he said the co-operation remained were a suitable customer found.

Canal Digital had announced the launch of a TiVo product, but this has now been put firmly to one side, with neither side wanting to comment publically.

The article is primarily about Conax’s new effort to provide and end-to-end ecosystem so small operators. They’re working with middleware developer Cubiware and content management system provider MPS Broadband to provide all of the components. This would seem to offer an alternative to the integrated TiVo solution they’d been working on. But, as the article states, the TiVo option is apparently still on offer should a customer be interested.

I don’t think this is a major blow to TiVo, but it is a setback. Canal Digital is the largest satellite provider in Northern Europe, so having them deploy TiVo would’ve been a nice boost to subscriber numbers and another feather in TiVo’s cap. But having the largest cable operators in the UK and Spain, Virgin Media and ONO respectively, deploying TiVo is hardly a consolation prize. So TiVo’s doing quite alright, thank you very much.

I’ve emailed TiVo to see if they have any official comment.

EDIT: After I posted this I remembered something else, the Conax deal was also related to TiVo’s deal with Technicolor announced in May 2010. Technicolor was to port TiVo’s software to their DSI803 satellite DVR, and as the press release stated“The initial implementation is to support the initiative reported earlier this year between TiVo and Conax.” Given the work with Conax appears to be back burnered, and the Canal Digital deal is on ice, does that have implications for Technicolor’s porting work as well? Without a launch customer is the work proceeding?

Technicolor is the hardware provider for the recently launched DirecTV THR22, but it is hard to say if that has any bearing at all on the other work given DirecTV’s unique specifications and the different hardware involved.

Joshua covers a lot of interesting territory, with the primary focus being on TiVo’s app support. TiVo is focused on providing a consistent app environment across their platforms, be it retail or provider units. Today the focus on on the Adobe Air/Flash environment which is used on the retail and MSO Premiere units in the US, and the Virgin Media and ONO boxes in Europe. There is still support for the Java environment used on earlier platforms, as in HME, and TiVo is looking at other environments.

For developers seeking to get their app onto TiVo they work directly with TiVo for the retail market, but need to work with the providers for their TiVo units. TiVo can help facilitate those conversations for developers seeking to get their apps on multiple platforms, but it is up to the individual operators to approve an app for their customers.

He also talked a bit about working with different size operators, from giants like Comcast and Charter with millions of users, down to small MSOs with 150,000 subscribers. Definitely worth watching, IMHO. Now if we could just have the SDK released and actually start seeing more apps!

Via Broadband TV News

Virgin in the UK, ONO in Spain, RCN, Suddenlink, and Grande Communications distributing TiVo and Charter just starting TiVo deployments in the US, other deals still in process – this is why MSO deals are of increasing importance to the future of TiVo, and the retail market relatively less important. I don’t think TiVo will pull out of retail or anything so drastic, but I do expect that future retail hardware will, like the Elite, most likely be designs primarily tailored for MSOs and repurposed for retail. Retail serves as a bit of a development lab, giving TiVo freedom to try new things or offer services that they may not be able to offer through MSOs – like Netflix, for example. But if these MSO deals are successful they will be driving the bulk of TiVo’s business, and will rightfully be their primary focus.

Via Broadband TV News.

Guillermo Mercader, Ono’s DG of residential services, says it will cost €10 a month, which confirms the earlier reports. No mention was made of the €150 installation fee mentioned previously. The launch of TiVo is also ONO’s launch of HD services, and the new service will include twelve HD channels. That is an extra incentive for new subscribers seeking HD content. The TiVo platform will also include Videoclub ONO, which offers over 2,700 hours of new releases and free content, including HD & 3D.

ONO has invested over €9 billion in their network and an additional €150 million has been earmarked for the deployment of DOCSIS 3.0 and development of TiVo. Alongside the TiVo launch ONO has also boosted their fiber network to support broadband subscriptions of 100Mbps download & 10Mbps upload, available to seven million homes.

Things seem to be going well for TiVo in Spain, I hope it continues to be smooth sailing.

Via Broadband TV News.

Fortunately they offer more than TV services, for the same quarter they had 1,414,000 Internet service subscribers, up 0.6% and 4.3% from the previous quarter and year, respectively. 270,000, or 19% of broadband customers, opted for their 30Mbps or 50Mbps premium high speed services. Telephony subscribers grew 0.2% from Q1 to 1,711,000.

ONO is looking to the launch of TiVo in September to turn their TV subscriber losses into growth.

Via Broadband TV News.