Is TiVo positioning itself to become the device to stream content to your television? Granted, its current universe is small (4.2 million subscribers). But it’s adding content sources with abandon.
The latest is Blip.TV, which began “syndicating shows through Verizon’s Fios and Sony’s Bravia Internet Video Link” earlier this year. Like YouTube, Blip.TV is also encoding its content for the iPhone.
Blip.TV is a video content site that shares ad revenue (50-50) with its content producers. TiVo is a subscription-based service plus a digital video recorder on steroids. In addition to facilitating timeshifting (automatically record TV programs, watch when you want to), TiVo also provides on-demand content via Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand.
Last month, TiVo announced a deal with Domino’s Pizza, enabling couch potatoes to order pizza through the TiVo set-top box. (Who else is thinking of Snow Crash?) In October, TiVo launched a beta mobile site and announced an agreement with Jaman.com, a movie service focusing on indy and foreign titles. Although TiVo’s stock dropped earlier this year, it is recovering.
