TiVo’s chief revenue officer, Matt Milne, said the company’s new consumer-grade streaming device, the TiVo Stream 4K, should hit the market in “the next few weeks.”

Speaking during a keynote session last Tuesday (April 28) during the Virtual Next TV Summit, part of Future’s Virtual NYC TV Week Spring, Milne said TiVo product developers have been working at home amid the pandemic to get the Android TV-based OTT device ready to market.

At CES in January, where TiVo introduced the $70 dongle and successfully created buzz for it, the company touted an April release date for the TiVo Stream 4K.

The TiVo 4K Stream will have access to all the apps available in the Google Play Store via Android TV. What will make it different from other OTT devices, Milne said, is its ability to tap TiVo’s sizable search and discover resources.

“We’re investing well over $100 million a year at a foundational level to help people with discovery,” he said. “This is a product built for the streaming wars. It’s built to bring all that content together.”

Users of streaming services, Milne said, spend an average of 11 minutes searching among an average of seven subscription VOD, AVOD and other OTT programming sources for a movie, TV show, or news or sports event.

The TiVo 4K Stream will allow users to navigate their apps through the traditional “Gemstar grid,” Milne said. But it will also offer a separate user interface based on TiVo’s proprietary search and discovery UI.

TiVo, he said, will become a “neutral third party,” with SVOD and AVOD platforms available to, in turn, anonymously monitor app usage through its platform.

TiVo isn’t totally neutral — it recently launched its own AVOD platform, TiVo Plus. Milne didn’t say whether or not TiVo Plus has any kind of priority status in terms of what search and discovery results users might get on TiVo Stream 4K.

“We see this as a merchandiser opportunity,” Milne said. “How do we connect the consumer to the content?”

Also at the Virtual Next TV Summit, a panel of programming executives talked about their services’ place in the streaming world and ways they are adapting. Craig Engler, general manager of AMC Networks-owned Shudder, the horror-themed subscription VOD service, said the disruption in the movie theater world prompted an April 28 “surprise drop” on Shudder of new original movie Blood Quantum that was originally supposed to debut in Alamo Drafthouse theaters. “That’s fun, because it creates excitement for people” who subscribe to the service, Engler said.

Rachel Brill, senior VP and general manager of B/R Studio, at WarnerMedia-owned Bleacher Report, said B/R is moving more toward integrating social and original programming within the app, notably with three days of NFL Draft coverage. The aim is to find shareable moments. “How do you truly create an all encompassing immersive experience for sports fans?” she said.

William Sager, chairman and CEO of The Preview Channel, said the year-old, OTT-delivered service plans to add new channels devoted to previews and trailers about video games and classic movies. “We are off and running” and serving passionate fans of games and movies, he said.

Brendon Thomas, VP of distribution at Viacom-owned Pluto TV, said at the ad-supported (free) VOD service “we do see ourselves a bit more as programmers than aggregators,” focused on optimizing the content it has used to create more than 250 “live linear-like channels” plus on-demand programming. 

Kent Gibbons contributed to this story.

Asia-based martial arts media company ONE Championship will look to introduce its unique fight brand to U.S. viewers via an live Oct. 12 telecast on TNT, part of a three-year distribution deal between the two companies signed in January. 

As one of the largest martial arts organizations in the world, ONE Championship offers bouts across all martial arts disciplines such as Muay Thai, kickboxing, submission grappling and mixed martial arts.

“Our partnership with ONE Championship is off to a terrific start and we’re thrilled to showcase their historic 100th event with fans in the U.S,” said Tina Shah, executive vice president and general manager of Turner Sports, which offers ONE Championship content on its B/R Live streaming service. “As ONE Championship continues to expand its domestic reach, we’ll continue to work closely with them as we identify new opportunities to share this compelling content with a passionate, growing fan base.”

Heading up ONE Championship is founder, chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong. I recently spoke with Sityodtong about the ONE Championship brand and its move into the U.S., as well as his thoughts on the current combat sports marketplace.

Define the ONE Championship brand.

ONE Championship is Asia's largest global sports media property. In the Western Hemisphere the largest sports property is the NFL and is cherished by all Americans -- in the same way in the East, Martial arts is cherished by all of Asia. We have 550 world class martial artists on our roster, of which 140 are world champions across various disciplines. So whether it's mixed martial arts, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Kung Fu, karate etc., we have the largest roster of world champion martial artists on the planet of any organization. The formula for our success has been values, heroes, and story. We want to celebrate the values of integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion, which are the bedrock values of martial arts but also the bedrock values of the best of humanity. Our genre might be martial arts but our platform is humanity, and anyone can watch our show and take away from our heroes.

Has the organization had a lot of exposure here in the U.S.?

We just started broadcasting on TNT and B/R Live. We have events every 10 days of the week on B/R Live across the continent of Asia and broadcast all over 140 countries. Our 100th show will be on Oct. 12th and broadcast live [at 11 p.m. (ET)] on TNT.

How many future One Championship live events will Turner Sports look to to televise?

I think I think it's going to start a big, big trend in which there will be more and more events televised live on TNT.

How do you expect to compete in a growing mixed martial arts genre in the US dominated by the UFC?

Actually there are tons of mixed martial arts organizations in the U.S., but I think there isn't one that has our formula. So we're 180 degrees opposite of whatever is in the Western world in terms of what MMA promotions are. I would say the vast majority of western promotions focus on the blood sports angle that includes controversy, anger and hatred -- anything you can do to create controversy and stoke the fires. That's a very different approach from us -- we don't have any of that. Our heroes are genuine role models for society, so it's a very different approach.

The UFC, however you define it, is very popular in the U.S. Do you feel that your approach to fighting and mixed martial arts will translate well for the U.S. viewer?

Yes -- I think it's going to be refreshing, very new and eye-opening. Watching the world's best martial arts compete, but yet at the same time watching them behave in such a respectable, honorable way will appeal to viewers.