It turns out Panasonic is the Japanese company Xperi was referring to last week when during its first quarter earnings report it referenced a sixth smart TV OEM partner for its TiVo operating system. 

Also read: TiVo's Long Smart TV OS Slog Marches on, Adds Japanese OEM, Targets 2 Million Active TVs by EOY

Introducing its 2024 smart TV product line this week at an event in Düsseldorf, Germany, Panasonic unveiled a mid-range and several entry-level smart TV model lines that use Xperi's TiVo-branded TVOS. 

San Jose, Calif.-based Xperi is a leader in car audio tech. But after purchasing TiVo in late 2019 for $3 billion, the company has set its sites on running down the world's great smart TV OS platforms with an alternative it claims is more cost-effective for set makers who aren't the size of Samsung or LG. 

Osaka-based Panasonic, meanwhile, still develops its TVs in Japan, but relies on a double-top-secret manufacturing partner to build its sets. The company has a reconfigured smart TV product line that includes high-end Z95A models loaded with Amazon Fire TV, while its mid-range W70A model sets run on Google TV.

Panasonic now has a third OS option, TiVo, which it's adding to its W60A lower midrange strata, which come in 43-, 50-, 55- and 65-inch configurations and support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, but lack the actual hardware to pull it off.

TiVo will also power Panasonic's S40A and S45A models, which are HD only and come in 24-, 32 and 40-inch iterations. 

The TV's will hit the shelves of European retailers later this year, joining models powered by Samsung's Tizan, LG's webOS, Google TV and Amazon Fire TV. 

So yeah, Xperi seems to be doing what Roku CEO Anthony Wood said a year ago was impossible -- enter the smart TV OS business at this stage of the game and build scale. 

Also read: Roku CEO Dismisses TiVo TVOS Threat: 'It's Hard to Imagine They Could Gain the Necessary Scale'

Vestel, one of Europe's largest TV suppliers, started Europ shipment of "powered-by-TiVo" sets earlier this year. And Western Euro retailer Argos is now selling TiVo-powered sets made by Sharp under its "Bush" house brand. 

As TiVo moves closer to establishing a beachhead in the gateway streaming OS business in Europe, Xperi said there are still plans to deploy the operating platform in North America later in 2024. 

The company is aiming to have 2 million active TiVo-powered TVs by the end of the year. 

The National Association of Broadcasters convention, NAB Show 2021, slated for Oct. 9-13 in Las Vegas, lost several big exhibitors this week as companies grapple with the challenge of in-person gatherings as COVID-19's spread continues.

As Future site TV Tech has reported, Sony Electronics said on Tuesday it would withdraw from in-person gatherings in October, including NAB Show and InfoComm. "While these events are an important forum to reach our customers and introduce new products, this is a choice we made to ensure we’re putting our employees’ and our partners’ health and well-being first," Theresa Alesso, president, Pro Division, Sony Electronics said in a statement. Sony said it planned to hold a press conference in conjunction with NAB on Sunday, Oct. 10, at 9 a.m. PT/noon ET.

After Sony said it was pulling out, Ross Video said it was withdrawing from the convention, citing "the challenges posed by the fluctuating public health situation in Nevada (and elsewhere around the world), travel restrictions into the USA, logistics and general uncertainty among exhibitors and potential attendees." Ross said instead it will share new product announcements during a Ross Live series of online broadcasts.

Then came word from Panasonic and Canon that they, too, would not be participating live at NAB Show. Canon also pulled back from InfoComm, slated for Oct. 23-29 in Orlando, Florida. (Update on Sept. 14: Brainstorm also will not be exhibiting, TV Tech reported.)

Before the pullbacks, NAB had been expecting to welcome more than 600 exhibitors back to Vegas for NAB Show, which went virtual in 2020. The 2021 broadcasters' convention was pushed back from the typical April timeframe to October in hopes the pandemic would have abated sufficiently by then. The delta variant, though, has caused COVID cases and hospitalizations to spike around the country, especially in states where vaccination rates are low. On Friday, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers converted its October convention, the Cable-Tec Expo, to an online gathering because of travel and health concerns. 

In response to the Sony pullout, Ann Marie Cummings, senior VP of communications at NAB, told TV Tech: “Sony is a valued partner, and we respect this difficult decision. We look forward to continuing to work with them to reach the NAB Show audience both in person and virtually. Recognizing that NAB Show is an economic engine for our industry, we are committed to delivering a productive in-person experience and have taken important steps to prioritize the safety of our community, including requiring proof of vaccination. We are pleased to host more than 600 exhibiting companies, ready to meet with buyers and get back to business in Las Vegas.”

NAB later pointed to a video presentation (which can be viewed here) in which NAB CEO Gordon Smith said about the convention: "This Show will be unlike any other in our history, as it has certainly been a unique year. Our audience size and scope will reflect those most passionate and eager to reconnect, creating a strong and productive experience for all who are able to join us. The 2021 NAB Show is a beacon… a marker for our industry…one that will invigorate and guide us into 2022 with a new level of momentum. It will be the largest and most significant event for broadcasters and the entire media and entertainment industry. This event has always been an economic engine of our industry, and we are excited to welcome over 600 exhibitors who are ready to meet with buyers and move this business forward."

Future, which owns B+C, Next TV and TV Tech, is an NAB Partner and produces the NAB Show Daily.

Hollywood’s biggest filmmakers and studios don’t like what the motion smoothing feature in modern Ultra High Definition (UHD) TVs is doing to their films. And with the help of trade group the UHD Alliance, they’ve banded together and convinced leading consumer electronics makers to create a feature that automatically turns off motion smoothing for movies.

On Tuesday, shortly after the UHD Alliance hosted a star-studded press event to announce the coalition in Los Angeles, Vizio said that it would enable the so-called “Filmmaker Mode” in its 2020 smart TV collection.

LG and Panasonic have also committed to support the standard, which is designed as to not require the user to enter menu settings. Filmmaker Mode can be triggered automatically by metadata in the content, or manually via a dedicated button on the remote. 

“Current TVs use advanced video processing capabilities to offer consumers a broad range of options in viewing various types of content, ranging from sports to video games,” reads a press release issued by the UHD Alliance, a coalition of 4K technology stakeholders. “Filmmaker Mode will allow viewers to enjoy a more cinematic experience on their UHD TVs when watching movies by disabling all post-processing (e.g. motion smoothing, etc.) so the movie or television show is displayed as it was intended by the filmmaker, preserving the correct aspect ratios, colors and frame rates.”

The UHD Alliance attached a gaggle of big-name Hollywood directors to its initiative, including Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryand Coogler, Patty Jenkins, Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan. Executives from Universal Pictures and Amazon Prime Video were also quoted in the coalition’s press release.

“Most people today are watching these classic films at home rather than in movie theaters, making Filmmaker Mode of particular importance when presenting these films which have specifications unique to being shot on film,” Scorsese said in the announcement. 

Panasonic Corp. subsidiary Panasonic Avionics Corp. (PAC) will pay $137.4 million in criminal penalties to the U.S. government to settle charges it used consultants improperly and concealed payments to third parties, both in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

That, in turn, caused parent and electronics giant Panasonic to falsify its books, said the Justice Department, which announced the settlement.

PAC supplies in-flight entertainment systems and airplane communications. Justice said that among its transgressions was paying a consultant $875,000 over a six-year period while the consultant was employed by a state-owned airline negotiating a lucrative contract; Panasonic earned $92 million in profit from the contract.

“The Criminal Division will take all appropriate action to ensure that the investing public is able to trust the accuracy of the financial statements of companies that avail themselves of American securities exchanges," the DOJ said. 

PAC conceded it had "mischaracterized" the money as "consultant payments," which parent Panasonic then incorrectly designated as "selling and general administrative expenses."

PAC also hid $7 million in payments to unqualified sales agents, first terminating the relationships, then using them after they were re-hired by a subcontractor, DOJ said.

PAC was charged with one count of knowingly and willfully causing the falsification of the books, records and accounts of parent company Panasonic, but that was deferred with Panasonic's agreement to pay $137,403,812.  

TiVo said it has renewed its product and intellectual property licensing deal with Panasonic.

The deal, which follows the recent merger of TiVo and Rovi (the combined company is keeping the TiVo brand), includes a multi-year extension of its products for the Japan market, including G-Guide, G-Guide HTML and G-Guide xD, as well as a multi-year worldwide license renewal to Rovi’s entertainment discovery patent portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed.

RELATED: Rovi Seals Deal for TiVo

“Our continued collaboration with Panasonic further reinforces the need for technologies and solutions to power next-gen entertainment services while enhancing the overall user experience,”Michael Hawkey, senior vice president and general manager of user experience at TiVo, said in a statement. “Our innovative products help companies like Panasonic deliver seamless navigation experiences that help users find the content they want to watch no matter where they are or what device they are watching from.”

TiVo, which remains at odds with Comcast over licenses and patents, is scheduled to announce Q3 results on Thursday (Nov. 3).

LAS VEGAS — Weather-induced travel snafus didn’t stop tens of thousands of techno-geeks from pouring into Sin City last week for CES, where the biggest corporate bets were placed on the Internet of Things, over-the-top video services, and 4K/Ultra HD.

If the the Consumer Technology Association’s annual gadget-fest had one big, central theme, it was the IoT, a market that spans home security and automation, OTT devices, and connected wearables, and even “smart” clothing.

CES Unveiled, an event that gives show-goers a glimpse of what was to be on display during the week, was dominated by dozens of IoT startups, all looking to cut their slice of a market that will create a record-setting $287 billion in retail revenue in 2016, according to the CTA’s latest forecast.

That’s the kind of market traction that would justify former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers’s 2014 prediction that the IoT is poised to become a $19 trillion market over the next decade, with pickup by the private and public sectors, entire cities and, perhaps, entire countries.

Aside from the ongoing debate about data and device security, the big challenge in the years ahead will be securing IoT systems and building software that enables these multitudes of connected devices and sensors to work together. Panasonic is one of many companies taking a stab at that by introducing ÔRA, an “adaptive” smart home platform designed to work with connected products from a wide range of suppliers and underlying operating systems.

VR GETS MORE REAL

The market for virtual reality — including the technology that runs it and the content that will fuel it — is a small-yet-rapidly-growing segment, and its presence was felt strongly at CES.

Consumers appear to have an appetite for VR. Interest in new VR products will cause sales to surge 500% in 2016 and reach 1.2 million units sold, the CTA predicted. The trade group also said it expects VR to generate $540 million in revenues this year, up 440% from 2015.

Some 70% of U.S. consumers have played video games, an area expected to drive VR adoption, according to a new study from Frank N. Magid Associates, and nearly one-quarter of consumers said they are “very interested” in having a virtual reality experience at home. Another 23% said they were interested.

Those numbers are part of the reason why Comcast has been splashing cash on VR startups such as Baobab, Next- VR, and AltspaceVR, and why Discovery Communications has launched a division dedicated to VR content development.

The biggest VR news last week came by way of Oculus, the VR startup acquired by Facebook in 2014 for a cool $2 billion. Timed with the event, Oculus began to take preorders on its flagship VR platform, the Oculus Rift, on Wednesday (Jan. 6).

The company also set the starting price — $599 — for a package that includes the Oculus headset, sensor, remote, required cables, an Xbox One controller and two games.

Oculus Rift-PC bundles retail starting at $1,499. Oculus will offer its wares in 20 countries out of the chute.

By comparison, the Samsung Gear VR mobile headset (also powered by Oculus’s technology) costs $99, but must be paired with a compatible Samsung smartphone, which puts the all-in price in the same neighborhood as the single-purpose Oculus Rift.

There’s much more to come, as high-end VR platforms from Sony (for the PlayStation 4) and HTC (Vive) hit the market later this year.

“There’s nothing gimmicky about VR,” said Nick Woodman, CEO of GoPro, the maker of wearable cameras that’s working with Google on a consumer-focused, 360-degree camera array called Odyssey.

OTT SPREADS EVERYWHERE

Over-the-top video is no longer an emerging niche, but a mainstream phenomenon with an increasingly global reach.

For evidence of that look no further than Netflix, which last week said it had flipped the switch on its subscription OTT video service in 130 more countries, expanding to almost 200. Vietnam, India, Poland, Brazil, Russia and Saudi Arabia are among the countries that have joined the list, while China remains notably absent.

“Today, you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings declared in his CES keynote last Wednesday (Jan. 6).

The expansion will surely give a massive boost to Netflix’s subscriber base and the reach of its originals. Netflix, which was available in 60 countries heading into CES, has about 69.17 million subscribers worldwide, including 43.18 million in the U.S. Netflix will produce more than 600 hours of original programming this year, chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

The adoption and reach of digital video continues to have a profound effect on the overall TV market, changing the way consumers watch.

“Digital will win the decade,” Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s chief business officer, said during his keynote last Thursday (Jan. 7). He predicted that digital video will “replace” TV, in part because it’s immersive in ways that traditional TV can’t be, is “endlessly diverse” and is inherently mobile.

“I don’t think digital video will grow linearly; I think it will grow exponentially,” Kyncl added, holding fast to a prediction that digital formats will present 75% of the total viewing pie by 2020.

Kyncl likened YouTube’s trajectory to the rise of cable TV, where networks such as ESPN, CNN, AMC and MTV first emerged as niche players but eventually expanded into original content.

YouTube is at a “similar inflection point,” he said, as it ups investment in originals for its new YouTube Red subscription service, which is also rumored to be seeking TV licensing deals.

But there are also some differences. YouTube “is a democratic platform … anyone can create something everyone can watch,” he said.

YouTube has yet to announce a multichannel TV offering that replicates pay TV, but others are pursuing services and strategies aimed at the small but growing cord-cutting trend.

Add to that list Vidgo, an Atlanta-based startup that hopes to crack the pay TV code by offering low-cost bundles of broadcast TV channels and VOD via an over-the-top distribution platform.

Taking aim at a market now targeted by services such as Sling TV and PlayStation Vue, Vidgo said it will offer a set of packages with live, linear TV and video-on-demand, including premium services, local broadcast TV and sports, to a range of smart TVs, tablets and smartphones.

Looking a bit like a virtual multichannel video programming distributor, Vidgo said its service will be free of credit checks or contracts. It plans to launch in 15 U.S. markets in the first half of 2016 (including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta), and achieve national coverage by Q4 2016.

For now, Vidgo is keeping a lid on its channel lineups and pricing, noting it will release those details within the next 45 days. But the startup has some pay TV expertise behind it. Robert Kostensky, formerly of DirecTV, is Vidgo’s president and co-founder, and Shane Cannon, president of Cannon Satellite TV (a Dish Network authorized dealer), is its chief marketing officer. Vidgo’s parent company is Gotham Media, a company that runs a content delivery network and develops streaming apps for platforms such as iOS, Android and Roku.

TUNER TONNAGE

OTT services topped the video agenda last week, but traditional pay TV continues to fight for growth and relevance.

Dish Network used this year’s CES to unleash a super- sized whole-home DVR, the Hopper 3, a device that supports 4K video and packs 16 tuners and 2 Terabytes of storage.

Dish unveiled its latest flagship as the satellite-TV provider looks to amp up its pay TV subscriber numbers. It lost 23,000 video subscribers in the third quarter of 2015, ending the period with 13.91 million.

The Hopper 3 will carry forward elements from earlier-generation Hoppers, including integrated Sling Media place-shifting technology and AutoHop ad-skipping capability, but will sport a faster processor (the Broadcom BCM7445 Ultra HD TV Home Gateway chip) that will result in quicker response times for Dish’s coming “touch” remote, which is still in beta.

The 16-tuner device will enable customers to attach up to 6 “Joey” client devices, meaning that seven different shows can be watched in the home at the same time. Dish customers will also be able to watch and record up to 16 shows at once.

That capability also allows Dish to one-up Cablevision Systems’s multiroom DVR, as well as a multidevice X1 setup Comcast is testing that enables customers to record up to 15 shows at once. Verizon FiOS TV’s Quantum TV platform lets users record up to 10 shows at once when they combine the functions of two Arris-made Verizon Media Servers.

On the Ultra HD front, the Hopper 3 supports 4K content up to 60 frames per second. Early on, Dish will offer 4K fare from Sony Pictures, The Orchard and Mance Media, as well as Netflix’s 4K library.

Dish also has other apps in mind for 4K, as the Hopper 3 will let subs with 4K TVs stitch four live HD (1080p) streams onto the TV screen at the same time. That capability — something Dish refers to as “Sports Bar Mode” — decodes four HD programs and stitches them into one stream that can be displayed on the 4K screen.

Splitting and combining those screens is another way to “show off the power of 4K,” Vivek Khemka, Dish’s recently promoted executive vice president and chief technology officer, said.

Dish also introduced the Hopper Go, a $99 USB-connected device with 64 Gigabytes of flash memory that lets subs transfer up to 100 hours of DVR-recorded content for offline viewing on a mobile device. Dish subs with the Hopper 2 or Hopper 3 will be able to link up to five mobile devices to the Hopper Go via WiFi, and Android tablet and smartphone users will have the added option of connecting via a USB cable.

4K MATURING

There were also signs everywhere that 4K video is rapidly maturing as consumer adoption of the platform grows and the underlying technology ecosystem starts to wrap itself around standards.

About 34% of U.S. homes will have a 4K TV by 2019, according to research firm IHS. On the technical end, the UHD Alliance, an industry organization that includes DirecTV and Rogers Communications among its backers, launched a consumer-facing logo and brand that identifies services, content and devices that adhere to technical specifications that deliver a “premium” Ultra HD experience.

The group will use and license an “Ultra HD Premium” logo to identify those products and services that deliver agreed-upon metrics such as High Dynamic Range, peak luminance, audio, black levels and wide color gamut, among others.

The initial specs cover TVs (other devices are currently “under consideration”), distribution and content.

Panasonic’s DX90 series TV sets are the first to be certified with the UHD Premium label, Julie Bauer, president of Panasonic consumer electronics and chief marketing officer, said at a CES press event here.

Las Vegas – Hitting on the overarching Internet of Things theme that’s omnipresent here, Panasonic said it has entered a partnership with the city of Denver, including nearby Denver International Airport, to deploy a connected, “smart” system with integrating monitoring and controls that will span areas such as energy consumption.

Joseph Taylor, chairman and CEO of Panasonic Corp. of America, made the announcement here Tuesday during the company’s CES press conference. The agreement, which features an operations hub for Panasonic-run division at the Pena Station NEXT development, is part of bigger Panasonic’s CityNow initiative.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock joined him on stage to tout the project, calling the Mile High City a hotspot for millennials and Baby Boomers. “People are moving to Denver because it’s  a smart, livable city…I believe we’ll provide smarter and safer streets,” he said. (ever the homer, Hancock also predicted that the Denver Broncos, the No. 1 seed in the AFC will make a “great run during the playoffs”).  

Xcel Energy, a provider in the Western U.S., is also involved and will build a microgrid (with help from Panasonic and DIA) that will demo the use of Solar Photo Voltaic and Lithium Ion storage batteries working together.

Panasonic also introduced ÔRA, an “adaptive” smart home platform designed to work with connected products from a wide range of suppliers and underlying operating systems. The CE giant is teaming up with Xcel Energy to test ÔRA’s energy efficiency-facing capabilities.

Panasonic also announced that Honeywell products will be integrated with its do-it-yourself offering that originally worked with Panasonic’s own line of cameras, sensors and thermostats.

Others, including Apple and Google are planting their software flags in the smart home market. Among MVPDs, Comcast has developed a home-grown system for Xfinity Home that works with the MSO’s own products as well as certified products from outside parties. AT&T, meanwhile, has integrated its Digital Life platform to work with certain set-tops from recently acquired DirecTV.