After months of speculation, TiVo released its highly anticipated streaming media player, the TiVo Stream 4K, on May 6 of 2020. The device—first announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2020—missed its originally announced April release date.

That TiVo Stream 4K was a few days late probably shouldn’t have been too surprising. In the rapidly maturing OTT device business, which is dominated globally by Roku and Amazon, TiVo’s arrival is conspicuously untimely. 

But the Silicon Valley company, pivoting away from the business it pioneered two decades ago, the digital video recorder, and recently merged with Xperi, has big plans for its new product.

• Is TiVo Stream 4K Still Ditching Android TV?
• Xperi Signs Its First Smart TV OEM for TiVo Stream TVOS

TiVo Stream 4k Is Built for the Streaming Wars

According to TiVo’s chief revenue officer, Matt Milne, the company’s greatest challenge in releasing TiVo Stream 4K may have been the coronavirus pandemic and its unprecedented impact. Milne said TiVo product developers were busy working from home with the goal of getting the Android TV-based streaming dongle ready for market, and there’s a possibility that transition may have temporarily resulted in a slowdown. 

The TiVo Stream 4K streaming dongle is the company’s offering in an arguably overcrowded OTT device market. The field is clearly dominated by giants such as Roku and Amazon, but TiVo believes it has something to offer to consumers with the new TiVo Stream 4K nonetheless. 

“This is a product built for the streaming wars,” Milne said at Future's virtual NYC TV Week conference in 2020. The TiVo 4K Stream was to have access to every major app available in the Google Play Store via Android TV. It would also have voice control via Google Assistant—another standard Android TV accoutrement.

Parent company Xperi is also working with an unnamed smart TV manufacturer to produce TiVo Stream-powered smart TVs. The TVs are expected to launch in 2023.

The TiVo Stream 4K connects to a television via HDMI and is controlled with a remote—a peanut-shaped handheld device that mimics TiVo’s classic DVR remote. The device supports 4K UHD as well as Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos. Plus, Chromecast is built in.

The TiVo Stream 4K was initially priced at $70. For a time it dipped below $30 at some online retailers. Recently it was priced at $39.99 at Target, at $35.88 at Amazon and at $39 at Walmart.

TiVo was once a leader in the DVR market. Demand for that game-changing device has dwindled in the SVOD age, though, with users consuming more on-demand content. TiVo’s then CEO, Dave Shull, believed TiVo could seamlessly make the transition into the streaming market. TiVo’s edge, according to Shull, is its depth in search and recommendation technology. TV lovers have a Champagne problem, Shull said. They have more choice among more streaming apps than every. But it’s taking viewers, on average, around 11 minutes to find something to watch

Also: TiVo Joins the Crowded OTT Device Market with Stream 4K

“With TiVo Stream 4K, we have created a dramatically better experience for viewers who are tired of hunting through apps and interfaces to find the amazing content available through online content providers,” Shull told investors before the product launched. “We are excited to help TV lovers and occasional viewers alike make the most of their time in front of the screen and bring together the best of the streaming and TV experiences.”

TiVo Stream 4K was a bold move, backed up by an annual $100 million investment in search and recommendation technology. Shull said, “We’re going to bet on the streaming wars. We have a really easy solution to them.” He believed TiVo’s advances in search and discovery would help the TiVo Stream 4K device quickly move up in the competitive market—and, with any luck, make it a worthy contender next to heavy-hitters like Roku.

TiVo paired TiVo Stream 4 with the launch of a free ad-supported VOD service dubbed TiVo Plus. 

As a bonus, the TiVo Stream 4K also features TiVo’s own streaming service, TiVo Plus. It allows users to access free movies and TV shows on its 49 streaming channel lineup. Interestingly, in a departure from its roots, the TiVo Stream 4K does not specifically offer a way to record live TV, and is instead leaving that feature up to Sling TV and its Cloud DVR technology

TiVo is also banking on its new corporate spouse, which has inroads into embedding integrated technologies into electronics like smart TVs. This is how Roku and Amazon Fire TV, of course, have become so proliferate. 

Certainly, making a dent in the OTT device business won’t be easy. Not only are their powerful incumbents like Roku, Fire TV and Apple TV, Google is developing its own Android TV-based streaming product. 

According to Strategy Analytics, which releases market share data on the OTT device business every summer, Roku controlled more than 50% of the U.S. connected TV market last year. 

TiVo did have buzz—and perhaps, a little consumer curiosity—on its side. 

The TiVo Stream 4K was named a Wall Street Journal “Best of CES” product at launch, and the company came out swinging in an attempt to make it an appealing option in a crowded device marketplace. ■

Xperi Holdings, marketer of the aspiring TiVo Stream 4K CTV device/platform, said it has taken support for YouTube TV to the next level, making it a core part of the Stream OS. 

Not only does live TV from Google's virtual pay TV service now surface in the Stream program guide, that content is now discoverable throughout the Stream user experience, and is now also integrated into main voice and text search functions. 

“The highly requested YouTube TV addition represents the largest content-related integration update since the launch of TiVo Stream 4K,” said Ben Maughan, general manager of the Stream platform, in a statement. 

The deeper embedding of Google’s live TV service seems curious, given that it was just 11 months ago that Xperi — which bought TiVo two years ago for $3 million — strongly signaled that it's moving away from Google's Android TV software, which is the foundation to the TiVo Stream 4K OS. 

Google’s pivot into its own devices powered by its OS, which it now calls Google TV, meant that Xperi, based on competitive imperative, would alter its core software away from Google as it migrates the Stream platform from merely a device on TiVo Stream 4K dongles into a full-fledged OS that powers smart TVs worldwide. 

The TiVo-Xperi merger was sold on the notion that Xperi’s established entry into the smart TV OEM business would pave the way for a TiVo OS to compete head-on in the global market with Roku, Amazon and Samsung for control of the connected TV home. 

But it remains unclear as to when those Stream-powered smart TVs will ever hit the market, and what the OS will look like once it does. It’s also unclear as to how many TiVo Stream 4K dongles are in the market 24 months after the product's introduction. 

For what it's worth, you can now pick one up off of Amazon for $29. ■

Xperi Holdings Corp. has revealed plans to separate its intellectual property business from its core technology products operation. 

Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner told equity analysts during his company's Q4 earnings call on Wednesday that it plans to "separate" its IP unit this fall. 

Xperi has already started the process of rebranding its IP operation, putting it under the moniker of "Adeia." (It's a term dating back to ancient Greece and seems to have been used by foreigners, slaves or any non native Athenians to ask for permission to accuse someone of something. All we can say is, it better not show up in Wordle.)

TiVo, which became a patent troll of import in 2016 when it was acquired for $1.1 billion by Rovi Corp., announced plans to spin off its IP business in April 2020, under the leadership of Dave Shull. 

TiVo instead pivoted to a $3 billion deal to be acquired by Xperi, a company vested in technologies including car audio. The deal created a portfolio of more than 10,000 technology patents, along with the heft needed to end a long-running IP dispute with Comcast in Q4 2020. 

IP generated $391.2 million for Xperi in 2021, which was around 45% of the company's total revenue. The company said it has made close to $9 billion on enforcing tech patents in the last decade.

As TiVo found out, however, it makes it harder to partner with technology companies on the product side when you're simultaneously shaking them down in court over patents. 

Notably, on Thursday, Xperi put out its first IP deal release using its new Adeia brand, noting a new deal to license "hybrid bonding" semiconductor tech to Micron Technology.

The new "About Adeia" language: "Adeia invents, develops and licenses fundamental innovations that shape the way millions of people explore and experience entertainment and enhance billions of devices in an increasingly connected world. From TVs to smartphones, in almost any place, and across all types of entertainment experiences, from Pay-TV to OTT, Adeia’s technologies allow users to manage content and connections in a way that is smart, immersive and personal."

Beyond the IP separation announcement, Xperi also said it continues to actively carve out the deals it needs to expand its TiVo Stream 4K operating system beyond its current confines of a niche HDMI dongle. 

"This is our fastest growing category and we are focused on partnerships with TV OEMs, chipset partners and content providers to bring the first TVs powered by TiVo Stream OS in 2023 or 2024," Kirchner said.

When Xperi Corp. bought TiVo in 2019 for $3 billion, one of the more exciting elements of the transaction that was pitched to investors was the synergy around smart TV. 

TiVo‘s streaming OS, TiVo Stream, would leverage Xperi's already established inroads into the smart TV original equipment maker (OEM) market. Xperi, for example, provides the technology for IMAX Enhanced in smart TVs, which is being used by Disney Plus to show 13 Disney and Marvel movies in IMAX format. 

TiVo, which was already late to the streaming game, would catch up by accelerated adoption of TiVo Stream through enabled smart TVs. 

Nearly two years after the merger was announced, Xperi still doesn't have a smart TV integration deal for TiVo Stream. 

“We increased the footprint and available content for the TiVo Stream and advanced discussions toward delivering Stream OS on connected TVs,” Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner told equity analysts Monday, during his company's third-quarter earnings call. 

Beyond that, Kirchner provided little to no update about TiVo Stream — or the HDMI gadget that currently houses the OS, the TiVo Stream 4K. (Eighteen months after the product's introduction, we still have no idea as to how many consumers are using this thing.)

Xperi‘s continued dithering over Stream comes amid two recent impactful developments in the North American smart TV market, the most notable being Amazon's introduction of its own branded, Fire TV-powered smart TVs on its mighty e-commerce platform. 

According to Roku, the leading distributor of smart TV operating systems in North America, smart TV prices have increased 42% this year amid the global electronics supply chain shortage, with sales declining 31%. 

Amazon, of course, has the power to put price pressure on the entire market by selling well below costs. 

Meanwhile, other streaming operating systems are crowding into the market--notably, Comcast‘s new XClass OS, which powers new Hisense smart TVs sold at Walmart and — starting this week — Walmart.com.

For its part, Xperi continues to tout development of TiVo+, the ad-supported streaming service riding on the back of TiVo Stream. 

During Monday's Q3 presentation, Kirchner mentioned TiVo+ channel acquisitions QVC, Hallmark Movies & More, Magnolia Pictures and Kevin Hart's Laugh Out Loud. 

“We also expanded our relationship with Pluto TV to integrate 33 new channels, including Showtime Selects, Pluto TV 007, the Paramount Movie Channel, and more. Lastly, we added AcornTV to our SVOD lineup,” Kirchner noted. 

The streaming machinations come as TiVo's long profitable pay TV business begins to erode. Xperi‘s revenue from that sector came in at $54.2 million in Q3, down 2% year over year. 

The better news: Xperi‘s patent troll business was up 27% year over year to $101.6 million, the news coming a year after Xperi settled a long-running IP dispute with Comcast. 

TiVo parent company Xperi Holdings Inc. reported a 4.7% second-quarter revenue dip to $222.3 million, a shortfall driven, the company said, by expensive global pricing for silicon components and softness in one of its core TiVo businesses, supplying pay TV operators with video tech. 

Xperi's pay TV revenue declined 9% to $54 million in the second quarter, a period in which the company purchased IPTV tech vendor MobiTV at a bankruptcy auction for $18.5 million. 

Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner attributed the decline to he obvious: "Subscriber churn broadly consistent with industry trends," i.e. cord cutting. 

TiVo started pivoting toward direct-to-consumer streaming even before it announced its $3 billion deal to be acquired by Xperi two years ago. 

Without releasing any numerical details, Kirchner touted the expansion of footprint for the Android TV-powered TiVo Stream 4K platform, noting the addition of Target, Best Buy and QVC to a retail footprint that was previously limited to Walmart and Amazon. 

But no further light was shed on Xperi's earlier declared intentions to move Stream 4K platform away from Google's OS, and transition into the smart TV OEM business. 

More happily for Xperi, IP licensing revenue increased by 40% in the second quarter to $101.8 million, with TiVo renewing its patent deal with Google, among other constituents. 

This week, following last week's Xperi earnings report, the company announced yet another IP renewal, this one with Panasonic. 

Google has begun offering select users of its YouTube TV live-streaming service a free TiVo Stream 4K.

“To ensure our loyal YouTube TV members have a great watch experience (including the ability to watch 4K content on our optional new add-on service coming soon!), we want to offer you a free TiVo Stream 4K device,” reads an email intercepted by 9to5 Google and The Streamable. 

There is a little intrigue behind the promotion, which arms users with a free promotion code and directs them to TiVo’s online store to cash it in by July 2. (TiVo is selling its Android TV-powered streaming device for $39.99, but you can get it on Walmart and Amazon right now for $29.)

Is the TiVo Stream 4K being used as a wedge against Roku in a distribution battle that saw the YouTube TV app removed from the Roku Channel Store in April? Perhaps, but Google sort of solved that distribution issue be integrating YouTube TV access into its flagship YouTube app, which is still available in the Roku Channel Store, at least until the end of the year. 

And why is Google offering the TiVo Stream 4K, when its has its own streaming device (Chromecast with Google TV), and after TiVo recently said that it’s migrating its Stream 4K platform away from Google’s Android TV OS?

Notably, tech blog Zatz Not Funny pointed out several weeks ago that TiVo has a new brand logo and packaging. And while it doesn’t seem to be done with its Stream 4K retail effort—based on a new distribution agreement with Target—it does seem to be liquidating the older Stream 4K inventory, much of which was sold through Walmart. 

In theory, this would enable Google to prop up “select” YouTube TV subscriber relationships with Roku users who suddenly stopped engaging with the virtual MVPD right around the time the Roku impasse started in late-April, offering them a cheaply obtained connected TV dongle that uses a Google OS. 

Just a theory.

Despite reports of its demise, Xperi said it’s not done selling the TiVo Stream 4K device. But there's definitely a shift in retail strategy happening for this connected TV HDMI dongle. 

Now selling at the clearance-level price of $29.99, the streaming device appears to be exiting its previous go-to retail hub, Walmart, and is now taking up shop at Target. 

Last week, Wolfpoint Group, a company that helps retailers including Target launch new wares, announced that its client is launching the “TiVo 4K streamer product.” The TiVo Stream 4K is currently available at Target for $29.99, discounted from its previous $49.99 MSRP.

(This announcement surfaced when influential technology writer David Zatz, a longtime TiVo observer, noticed that the TiVo Stream 4K seems to be getting phased out of Walmart and Best Buy, drawing the ire of a Wolfpoint Group rep.)

Featured in prime Walmart “endcap” in-store locations last year, shortly after its April 2020 launch, the TiVo Stream 4K does seem to be getting superseded at America’s biggest big box store by Walmart’s own, new Onn-branded Android TV streaming device, which is also priced to move at $30. And the Stream 4K isn't even available at Best Buy, a longtime go-to destination for TiVo DVRs. (A TiVo rep told Next TV Thursday that the company is still selling products at Best Buy, but it is "in the process of switching from a third-party vendor to a direct sales relationship.")

The Target announcement comes amid overall confusion over TiVo Stream 4K’s fate. 

In early May, TiVo’s new parent company, Xperi, said that it was pivoting away from Android TV, the software that TiVo Stream 4K is based on, with Google now also planning to use the OS as a foundation for its own search-and-recommendation UX overlay software, Google TV. 

Xperi said its plan now is to deploy the TiVo Stream 4K software, sans Android TV, as a smart TV OEM operating system, competing with Roku and Google TV. 

“What has changed is last fall, Google came out and said that they intend to go beyond their core OS level offering and really get into the UX business, and in so doing, it eclipses one’s ability to think [they can] reasonably be an alternative that might otherwise live on their lower level platform,” said Xperi CEO John Kirchner to equity research analysts during Xperi’s first-quarter earnings call on May 5. 

A number of folks in the tech media interpreted that to mean that Xperi is pivoting away from its TiVo Stream 4K HDMI dongle—a read certainly not undermined when Xperi cut the price of existing inventory by 40%.

Xperi reps didn’t immediately respond to Next TV’s inquiry for clarity on the TiVo Stream 4K go-to-market strategy. However, the company told TechHive last month that new iterations of the TiVo Stream 4K device are on the way, and that Xperi is still making TiVo Stream 4K hardware “and will continue to do so.”

Xperi’s three-phase plan to transition its TiVo Stream 4K technology into a smart TV OS is now a two-phase strategy, thanks to the emergence of Google TV. 

Xperi no longer plans to deploy TiVo Stream 4K as an app that lives on top of Android TV and is now working directly with smart TV OEM manufacturers to make its OTT technology the operating system that powers their sets. 

“What has changed is last fall, Google came out and said that they intend to go beyond their core OS level offering and really get into the UX business, and in so doing, it eclipses one’s ability to think [they can] reasonably be an alternative that might otherwise live on their lower level platform,” said Xperi CEO John Kirchner to equity research analysts Wednesday during Xperi’s first-quarter earnings call. 

Xperi, a Los Angeles-based company specializing in sectors like automotive entertainment, acquired TiVo almost two years ago in a deal valued at $3 million. Under former CEO Dave Shull, TiVo had just embarked on a strategy to move away from the technology category it pioneered two decades back, the digital video recorder, and into video streaming. 

In April of last year, Xperi debuted the TiVo Stream 4K, a $50 connected TV HDMI dongle that places TiVo’s industry-leading search and recommendation technology on top of an Android TV software backbone. 

Xperi had planned to next transition TiVo Stream 4K into an embedded application that could live on top of Android TV on myriad types of third-party OTT devices. That was what it called “phase two.”

Phase three is evolving Stream 4K into a “comprehensive smart TV platform.” But plans change. 

In October, Google debuted the next generation of its Chromecast OTT dongle, Chromecast with Google TV, a connected TV device that overlays Android TV bones with a UX steeped in search and recommendation features. This is the same basic software strategy employed by the current TiVo Stream 4K dongle. 

Ultimately, Google plans over the next few years to deploy Google TV atop the myriad third-party dongles, sticks, players and smart TVs. 

And Xperi is jumping straight to phase three.  

“We’ve really jumped from phase, which is working aggressively on getting our solutions embedded into TVs in a deeper level,” Kirchner said. “That work is ongoing, and we continue to have partner discussions that I think are quite engaged around it. And we think we have a pretty unique solution that drives higher engagement, and therefore greater monetization for everybody involved in the ecosystem.

As Xperi and TiVo ran their marriage plans by investors in 2019, the companies played up Xperi’s established inroads into the smart TV OEM business—a useful Rolodex to have, given that the proliferation of incumbent OTT gateways like Roku have ridden on the backs of smart TV OEC relationships with companies like TCL and Hisense. 

Given the growing might of Roku and Amazon in this area, as well as the emergence of Google, it will be challenging for Xperi Holdiings Corp., a company with a $2.1 billion market capitalization, to transform itself into an OTT OS player. 

Certainly, time to execute “phase three” is running short. 

TiVo has introduced a small product iteration to its TiVo Stream 4K connected TV device designed to help users find their perfect SVOD, AVOD and vMVPD matches.

“TiVo Match Score” is a new feature found in TiVo Stream, the interface that sits atop the Android TV operator tier software that powers the TiVo Stream 4K. As outlined in this TiVo blog posting, the feature lets users scroll through a thumbnail menu of every available streaming service, applying a 1-100 score based on how each services programming matches the users algorithmically determined taste. 

Also read: TiVo Stream 4K Price Drops to $39

A late entry into the competitive race for OTT platform control, TiVo is betting on its software acumen. TiVo aims to take market share from incumbents Roku and Amazon by making its TiVo Stream platform a more intuitive device for navigating a paradigm in which the average user watches programming from at least seven different streaming services.

“Going forward, you’ll see us continue to invest heavily in this area,” TiVo says in its blog post. “TiVo is uniquely positioned to help you choose and optimize your streaming services. Unlike most competing platforms that may struggle with either the underlying technologies behind universal discovery (deep metadata and personalization), or with competing incentives to push their own content offering on you, TiVo’s only interest is in connecting you to the services and shows you’ll love the most.”

Also read: The Five Spot: Jon Kirchner, CEO, Xperi (Q&A)

The Tivo Stream interface is currently confined to the TiVo Stream 4K HDMI dongle, which debuted in April and is currently selling at Amazon and Walmart for $39. But TiVo has bigger plans for Stream, with new parent company Xperi looking for channels like smart TV, an industry in which it is already an established OEM partner. 

Xperi executives recently told investors that smart TVs powered by TiVo Stream should hit shelves in the second half of 2021

Originally set to go for around $70, the TiVo Stream 4K is now priced as cheap as $39 by leading retailers Amazon and Walmart.

The loss-leader pricing of the Android TV-based dongle follows significant price-slashing on OTT devices by Roku and Amazon, as technology companies sacrifice their short-term bottom lines on hardware and seek to proliferate their respective platforms, potentially reaping the fruits of controlling data flow and advanced advertising.

More than a week following the so-called “Cyber Monday” promotional period, Amazon, for instance, is still selling Roku’s Express HD Streaming Media Player for just $21. 

More than six months after its debut, it’s hard to tell just how well sales are going for TiVo Stream 4K, which represents DVR pioneer TiVo’s most aggressive move yet into video streaming. The device is well promoted on Amazon, which currently bills TiVo Stream 4K as an “Editor’s Choice.” Walmart, meanwhile, has given the HDMI dongle primo end-cap space in physical stores. 

Notably, averaging 4.2 “stars” on Amazon, reviews for the TiVo Stream 4K are generally lower than Roku and Amazon Fire TV. 

Xperi’s bid to make TiVo Stream 4K a dominant connected TV platform is moving along, but seemingly at a slow pace.

Xperi, which closed on its $3 billion purchase of TiVo six months ago, said a segment that subsumed the consumer products portion of TiVo’s business, the so-called “consumer experience category,” was up 2% in the third quarter to $49 million, with sales of the new $50 TiVo Stream 4K device credited for the uptick. 

In addition to direct sales, TiVo is now selling the streaming dongle, which is powered by an operator tier version of Google’s Android TV OS, via Walmart and Amazon, as well as through TPG Capital-owned cable operators RCN, Grande and Wave.

Xperi wouldn’t break out specific sales numbers. And when asked by equity analysts during their Q3 earnings call last week for an update on when we might see the TiVo Stream 4K platform surface in smart TVs—which would be a game changer for the platform—Xperi execs remained vague regarding the multiple “phase” evolution of the OTT device ecosytem. 

Look for smart TV migration to happen no sooner than the “back half” of 2021, they said.

“I would say we're having … good productive discussions on not only the technical issues of porting the code stack into the embedded space, but also just talking about how we can basically drive a platform that looks a little bit different in terms of the overall ecosystem and what's out there currently for for TV manufacturers,” Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner told analysts. 

Comcast Deal Worth $50 Million Annually?

Xperi conducted its Q3 call on the same day that it announced a settlement to its long-running patent dispute with Comcast.

On the call, one analyst noted that the inclusion of Comcast IP licensing coin increased baseline revenue for Xperia’s intellectual property business from $300 million annually to $350 million. And Kirchner didn’t dispute the math that the deal is worth around $50 million annually. 

Editor’s note: The whole four year dispute probably cost TiVo more to litigate. 

TiVo has announced the first major operator deal for its new TiVo Stream 4K OTT device, with TPG Capital-owned cable operators RCN, Grande and Wave set to bundle the Android TV-powered HDMI dongle with their high-speed internet service. 

Any customer who subscribes to RCN, Grande or Wave high speed internet service of 100 Mbps or higher can add a TiVo Stream 4K device free alongside free access for one year to TiVo’s new streaming service, TiVo Plus.

Debuting in late-April, and currently priced at $49.99, the TiVo Stream 4K stacks TiVo’s proprietary search-and-recommendation software over an Android TV-based operating system. It provides native integration of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus, as well as access to any app in the Google Play Store. 

Notably, in their marketing, the TPG cable triumvirate is emphasizing the Stream 4K’s native integration of virtual pay TV service Sling TV and local broadcast station streaming service Locast, of the latter of which the trio says “mimics the look and feel of traditional cable.”

The three cable companies currently offer traditional cable TV service, leveraging Evolution Digital's eStream 4K set-tops running Android TV with the TiVo user experience. They’ll now feature the Stream 4K device as an option to internet customers who don’t want the eStream thin-client pay TV service. 

RCN serves customers across areas of Massachusetts, Chicago, Pennsylvania, New York City, and Washington, DC.; Grande Communications’ footprint is in Texas; while Wave Broadband serves customers in Washington, Oregon and California.

“As a provider committed to bringing customers unique, affordable options, we continue to partner with brands such as TiVo and Sling TV to offer customers ultimate choice and control,” said Chris Fenger, COO of RCN, Grande and Wave, in a statement. “With the TiVo Stream 4K, internet-only customers can connect our award-winning internet service to a compact and powerful device to create an entirely customizable entertainment experience with access to live TV, streaming services and free TiVo content in one place.”

TiVo now has perhaps the most powerful partner in the retail business in its quest to quickly establish itself in the consumer streaming market. 

Over the weekend, tech blog ZatzNotFunny spotted an end cap at Walmart promoting the $49.99 TiVo Stream 4K. This kind of high-profile shelf space is a notable achievement for TiVo, which established its DVRs as a retail brand two decades ago but has largely succeeded in serving the business-to-business software market in recent years. 

for one thing, the end caps signal, site operator David Zatz noted, that TiVo still has "skilled folks around able to work such a deal."

Also read: TiVo Stream 4K: Everything You Need to Know About the New Android TV-Based Dongle

The TiVo Stream 4K also promoted in Walmart’s current 14-page weekly circular. 

Touting 265 million weekly customer visits across its approximately 11,500 stores, Walmart remains a powerful force in the video business, 15 years after it led the explosion of DVD purchasing. 

Now controlled by electronics company Xperi after a $3 billion merger consummated earlier this year, TiVo is once again prioritizing retail in its quest to establish itself in the connected TV device market dominated by Roku and Amazon … and soon, Google, from which TiVo licenses the Android TV operating system that powers its Stream 4K HDMI dongle. 

TiVo hasn’t released any sales data for its new OTT dongle, which debuted over the spring. Even with brisk sales, however, profits are probably negligible, with the company originally aiming to sell the device $79.99. 

Indeed, that hackneyed phrase “streaming wars” might better apply to the connected TV device game vs. the suddenly cluttered SVOD side of the business, with Amazon and Google able to sustain heavy losses on their devices in their quest to establish their respective platforms. 

Amazon just introduced an HD-only “Lite" version of its Fire TV Stick, which it prices at $29.99--on par with Roku's base HDMI stick. Google is about to transition its Chromecast HDMI dongle to run Android TV. The new “Chromecast with Android TV” is set to debut at locations including Walmart as early as this week, also with a $49.99 price tag. 

While Xperi Holdings might not tolerate sustained losses on consumer-grade streaming hardware, TiVo has assets to work with. 

For one, its software chops give it a head start in marketing the holy grail for streaming platforms—that is, the ability to aggregate content from multiple streaming apps into one location, thus simplifying the basic consumer task of quickly and easily finding something to watch. 

Notably, on its Walmart end cap, TiVo runs the banner, “No more app-switching. You entertainment on one screen.”

TiVo continues to iterate and develop the Stream software that overlays Android TV on its devices. It most recently announced the native integration of the Locast app into Stream. That means that every time you initiate the device, you don’t have to toggle over to the Locast app to find out what’s on your local broadcast stations. If Stream’s algorithms detect something you might like, it’ll surface in the main Stream app.

Of course, TiVo has a long way to go before Stream has native integration of enough major apps to turn it into a true one-stop location. It also has a long way to go before it challenges Roku in device sales--Roku just refreshed its product line Monday and is touting 43 million active users. 

But TiVo has even more things up its sleeve down the line. For instance, the under-told upside to its recent merger is Xperi’s strong connection to the smart TV OEM world, which is useful for TiVo’s quest to develop smart TV’s powered by Stream 4K. 

And then, of course, there’s Walmart.

TiVo said it now has “added” Locast to its TiVo Stream 4K OTT device, as well as its Linux-based DVRs, in the 23 markets the local broadcast channel streaming service operates. 

The ability for TiVo Stream 4K users to tap into the free Locast app isn’t exactly new—they already had access to it via Google Play

However, “Locast is now integrated into the TiVo experience, meaning TiVo Stream 4K users can search and browse Locast channels within the  guide and recommendations,” a rep for TiVo’s new parent company, Xperi, told Next TV. 

Also Read: Locast: Everything You Need to Know

Notably, in its marketing, TiVo is now somewhat overtly touting its OTT device and DVRs as pay TV replacements. Combining Locast with with recent AVOD integrations of Pluto TV and Tubi into streaming service TiVo+, will render a very cable-like programming experience. 

“With TiVo+, and through Locast in available markets on TiVo Stream 4K, Pluto On Demand and Tubi on TiVo Stream 4K, and Pluto TV on TiVo Stream 4K and TiVo DVRs (Linux), you already have over 140 channels with tens of thousands of hours of free entertainment to choose from,” the company said in a blog posting. 

TiVo and Tubi have announced a renewal of their distribution deal that will make the Tubi app one of the featured apps on the TiVo Stream 4K device

The agreement also calls for the Tubi platform to be integrated into TiVo’s own free, ad-supported steaming service, TiVo+.

Tubi, which was purchased by Fox Corp. for $440 million in May, was already available to users of the Android TV-based TiVo Stream 4K as an app available for free download in the Google Play Store. 

But the Tubi app will now come preloaded on Stream 4K alongside Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Sling TV.

Tubi has swelled into the biggest free-to-consumer, ad-supported streaming service, offering more than 23,000 movies and TV shows. 

TiVo Stream 4K was introduced over the spring at an introductory price of $50. TiVo, which is now owned by Xperi Holdings after a recently closed $3 billion acquisition, said sales of the device are brisk, and it has not followed through on plans to raise the price of the device to a regular $75. 

“Tubi has built a great service that is highly valued by our consumers and we’re pleased to offer Tubi on the new TiVo Stream 4K platform,” said Matt Milne, chief revenue officer at TiVo. “We are also excited to be expanding the partnership to count Tubi as part of the TiVo+ content network. This means the full Tubi catalog of movies and TV shows enjoy elevated discoverability to take full advantage of the TiVo user experience.”=

Added Andrea Clarke Hall, head of business development at Tubi: “We have a hugely successful collaboration with TiVo and are delighted to be continuing our relationship. TiVo customers will soon enjoy an even larger selection of titles on Tubi—including new offerings on Tubi Kids and the soon-to-launch Tubi en Español.”

Still priced at the same introductory $50, streaming device TiVo Stream 4K is the company’s fastest selling hardware product ever, says new parent company Xperi Holdings. 

Delivering its first quarterly earnings report since closing its $3 billion purchase of TiVo, Xperi laid out its vision for the Android TV-powered Stream 4K product, which Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner said is “launching a new chapter in the TiVo history.”

Also Read: TiVo Stream 4K: Everything You Need to Know About the New Android TV-Based Dongle

Kirchner didn’t disclose specific uptake numbers for Stream 4K, which streeted in May with a $50 introductory price that has been extended several times. (TiVo/Xperi said it would up the price to $75 on August 1, but it's still selling the device for $50.)  For now, Xperi remains focused on expanding the device’s footprint. But ultimately, Xperi wants to use its expertise and connections in the smart TV industry to lift the device’s Stream OS into the global smart TV market.

“The second phase of this footprint expansion will come from the launch of Stream as an embedded search and discovery application for smart TVs expected to arrive in products in late 2021 or early 2022,” Kirchner said. 

“In the third phase,” he added, “we will deliver Stream as a comprehensive smart TV platform connecting content from all sources and leveraging our search and discovery and monetization tools to fully exploit the TiVo content experience. This is one of the merger-related revenue synergies we are most excited about as we unite the TiVo Stream product with Xperi's very strong OEM relationships and TV footprint.”

The Product Mix

The Stream 4K business fits into a "customer experience" category that accounts for about 40% - 45% of Xperi/TiVo’s products business. According to Kirchner, it includes, “audio imaging and ML-based solutions for the home and mobile markets from Xperi's portfolio along with the DVR hardware, streaming, metadata, and monetization solutions from TiVo's portfolio.”

Connected Car, another legacy Xperi category, accounts for 10% - 15% of the products business. 

The pay TV business, which comes from the TiVo side, accounts for 45% - 50% of products revenue. According Kirchner, this category includes “ TiVo's Classic Guides, TiVo DVR, and its next-generation end-to-end platform which consists of our latest user interface, the user experience for and our IPTV cloud service.”

He said 12 U.S. pay TV operators are currently using that end-to-end solution, and that customer churn for the customers it’s deployed to is about 2% vs. an industry average of 4% - 5%. 

“As we think about the Pay-TV category over the longer term, we expect it to remain an important contributor to overall revenue, while experiencing a modest slow decline in the near to mid-term,” Kirchner said. “However, it remains strategically important alongside our growing streaming footprint as it provides us with one of the largest video consumption consumer ecosystems.

The IP Side

TiVo was looking to split its products business from its IP licensing/patents operation before its courtship and subsequent corporate marriage to Xperi. But the deal has largely achieved that objective, Xperi said Monday. 

Xperi Holdings is now managing a portfolio of 11,000 technology patents, generating $300 million in annual revenue, separating it from the TiVo-branded products business.  

Upon closure of the merger, Xperi cast out TiVo’s top IP litigator, Arvin Patel, and several other top corporate lawyers. 

But the company touted pay TV patent licensing deals with Verizon and CommScope, while expressing confidence that the latest favorable rulings by the International Trade Commission in its long-running battle with Comcast will finally bring the top U.S. cable company to heel. 

“The patents at issue in the order cover key and widely used innovations generally relating to multi-room DVR and communication between multiple set-top boxes using MoCA technology. This is now our third favorable decision at the ITC against Comcast, and we believe this decision is particularly important in the context of our ongoing dispute,” Kirchner said. 

Updated 7/14/2020: WarnerMedia has corrected and clarified misinformation provided to Next TV by TiVo, which falsely implied that the HBO Max app has been disaggregated into TiVo's Stream app. 

Like Comcast/NBCUniversal's Peacock app, which will launch on the open internet Wednesday, July 15, AT&T/WarnerMedia's HBO Max service is only obtainable on TiVo Stream 4K through a standalone app available through the Google Play Store.

TiVo Stream 4K is powered by Google's Android TV video operating system. TiVo, however, is trying to infiltrate the relatively mature connected TV device market dominated by Roku and Amazon by adding search and recommendation software to its Stream 4K device that unifies content across OTT services. 

HBO Max content has not been disaggregated into that software, as our earlier report, based on TiVo misinformation, implied.

Original story continues here:

Released in early May and available through July directly from TiVo for a $50 introductory price, TiVo Stream 4K is attempting to disrupt the connected TV device market dominated by Roku and Amazon, using proprietary software that surfaces recommended content across OTT programming services. 

Also read: TiVo Stream 4K: Everything You Need to Know About the New Android TV-Based Dongle

Currently, neither HBO Max or Peacock are available on Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

Those impasses are reported to center around app integration—the legacy HBO Now app has for several years been atomized within the respective Amazon Prime Video Channels and Roku Channels ecosystems. Roku and Fire TV users who subscribe to HBO have accessed the content through Roku and Amazon apps.

For HBO Max, WarnerMedia is said to be trying to extricate its app on the respective leading device platforms, and have users interface directly with HBO Max as they do Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus. In other words, when you watch Disney Plus on an Amazon Fire TV-enabled box, dongle or streaming stick, it’s directly through the Disney Plus app. 

More than one month after launch, HBO Max still doesn’t have support for Roku and Fire TV, two device ecosystems that control nearly two-thirds of connected TV usage in the U.S. HBO subscribers who use Roku and Amazon devices still must use the legacy HBO Now app (recently rebranded as simply “HBO”). And if they subscribe to HBO through the respective Amazon and Roku “channels” SVOD aggregation portals, HBO content is still disaggregated into those Roku and Amazon apps. But Roku and Amazon users don’t have access to the broader HBO Max experience, which now includes the vast array of WarnerMedia content and original series. 

The question is often asked, how many subscribers is WarnerMedia missing out on by not being more ubiquitously available? But for Roku and Amazon, there’s an issue, perhaps overlooked, as to how many legacy HBO subscribers—who would not pay a dollar more to enjoy the expanded $15-a-month HBO Max experience—might switch over to a device like TiVo Stream 4K to access the new service. 

TiVo hasn’t released any sales figures for its new OTT dongle yet the TiVo Stream 4K. But the device does seem to be having enough sales traction with its $49 introductory price for the company to extend the promotion through the end of July. 

Or maybe it’s lack of sales traction?

As 9to5Google first discovered on a TiVo product page, TiVo had originally planned to bump the gadget’s MSRP to an ongoing $69 starting June 25. The terms and conditions now say the “special offer” is now available through July 30 “while supplies last.”

Also read: TiVo Stream 4K: Everything You Need to Know About the New Android TV-Based Dongle

The Android TV-powered device is primarily available directly from TiVo, which is still keeping the product name after TiVo’s just-completed $1.1 billion merger with Xperi. 

For instance, you can’t yet buy TiVo Stream 4K from major electronics outlets like Amazon and Best Buy. 

The device’s fate has import in so much that TiVo Stream 4K is attempting to disrupt a market through superior software and search-and-discovery execution. Rather than being a device that delivers all of your OTT apps, TiVo Stream 4K is seeking to consolidate all relevant content into one quickly perused interface. 

Of course, to achieve that Holy Grail of OTT distribution, the device has to achieve some level of market infiltration. So we’re keeping an eye on that. 

TiVo said on May 6 that its new HDMI-connected streaming dongle, the TiVo Stream 4K, is finally available for purchase at an early-bird price of $49.99.

The debut of the product came at least six days late: TiVo had introduced its big entry into the streaming wars, and its big departure from the technology it pioneered, the digital video recorder, back in January at CES. And it said at the time that the device would be available in “April.”

If TiVo’s transformational new product, based on Android TV streaming tech, was delayed relative to its own schedule, it also seems very late in the broader scheme of the somewhat mature OTT device market, now dominated by Roku and Amazon.

Beyond initial price parity with 4K streaming dongles marketed by TiVo’s two bigger rivals, the TiVo Stream 4K seems to check all the prerequisites: it has all the OTT apps anyone else has via Android TV access to the Google Play Store; ditto with voice control via Google Assistant; it also supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision; and its peanut-shaped remote control will bring back warm fuzzy feelings for anyone who ever used one of TiVo’s pioneering DVRs.

To really catch up in the streaming device business, though, TiVo is counting on its advanced search and recommendation technology. With consumers taking, on average, 11 minutes to find something they want to watch, TiVo chief revenue officer Matt Milne thinks the company’s new dongle has an advantage over Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Apple TV and other devices.

“We’re investing well over $100 million a year at a foundational level to help people with discovery,” Milne said, speaking at a virtual keynote event produced by B+C parent Future on April 28. “This is a product built for the streaming wars. It’s built to bring all that content together.”

The TiVo Stream 4K is available for order directly from TiVo online. It’s promotional price gets bumped up to $70 in late May.

TiVo has finally streeted its new streaming dongle, the TiVo Stream 4K, a few days late following earlier announced April launch plans.

The Android TV-based device is available directly from TiVo for an introductory price of $49.99, on par with 4K-capable devices from OTT device leaders Roku and Amazon. The new TiVo dongle, which also supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, will revert to a regular price of $70 later this month after a promotion expires. TiVo is also offering Stream 4K purchasers seven days free of virtual MVPD service Sling TV.

Also read: TiVo Stream 4K to Arrive ‘In the Next Few Weeks’

The TiVo Stream 4K dongle connects to a television via HDMI interface and is controlled with a remote that’s configured as a smaller version of TiVo’s classic peanut-shaped DVR remote.

Visit Next TV to read more stories like this one. 

It supports all the major apps—Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video—that are available in the Google Play Store. Android TV also makes Google Assistant voice search native to the device.

TiVo is pivoting from its traditional roots as a DVR company to play in the maturing OTT device market. The company believes its $100 million investment in search and recommendation technology will catch it up quick in a market it’s late in arriving to.

“This is a product built for the streaming wars. It’s built to bring all that content together,” said TiVo chief revenue officer Matt Milne, speaking at a virtual event conducted by Next TV parent company Future Media last week. 

TiVo has finally streeted its new streaming dongle, the TiVo Stream 4K, a few days late following earlier announced April launch plans. 

The Android TV-based device is available directly from TiVo for an introductory price of $49.99, on par with 4K-capable devices from OTT device leaders Roku and Amazon. The new TiVo dongle, which also supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, will revert to a regular price of $70 later this month after a promotion expires. TiVo is also offering Stream 4K purchasers seven days free of virtual MVPD service Sling TV.

Also read: TiVo Stream 4K to Arrive ‘In the Next Few Weeks’

The TiVo Stream 4K dongle connects to a television via HDMI interface and is controlled with a remote that’s configured as a smaller version of TiVo’s classic peanut-shaped DVR remote.

It supports all the major apps—Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video—that are available in the Google Play Store. Android TV also makes Google Assistant voice search native to the device. 

TiVo is pivoting from its traditional roots as a DVR company to play in the maturing OTT device market. The company believes its $100 million investment in search and recommendation technology will catch it up quick in a market it’s late in arriving to. 

“This is a product built for the streaming wars. It’s built to bring all that content together,” said TiVo chief revenue officer Matt Milne, speaking at a virtual event conducted by Next TV parent company Future Media last week. 

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 Tuesday during the Virtual Next TV Summit, part of Future Media’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.

Visit Next TV to read more stories like this one. 

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.

“It’s a testament to our whole team that we’ve been able to conduct the necessary product test and will have high quality product we can launch to market,” Milne said.

Related: TiVo Stream 4K: When Will the Big CES Buzz Product Finally Arrive?

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—also on average—seven SVOD, 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 UI based on TiVo’s proprietary search and discovery interface.

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

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 a "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 coverage of the NFL draft. The aim is to find shareable moments, "how do you truly create an all encompassing immersive experience for sports fans.”

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.

The Virtual Next TV Summit continues the rest of this week.

Kent Gibbons contributed to this story.

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 today at Future Media’s Virtual Next TV Summit online conference, 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.

“It’s a testament to our whole team that we’ve been able to conduct the necessary product test and will have high quality product we can launch to market,” Milne said. 

Also read: TiVo Stream 4K: When Will the Big CES Buzz Product Finally Arrive?

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—also on average—seven SVOD, 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 UI based on TiVo’s proprietary search and discovery interface. 

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

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 merchandizer 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 a "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 Studio, at WarnerMedia-owned Bleacher Report, said BR is moving more toward integrating social and original programming within the app, notably with three days of coverage of the NFL draft. The aim is to find shareable moments, "how do you truly create an all encompassing immersive experience for sports fans.”

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.

The Virtual Next TV Summit continues the rest of this week.

Kent Gibbons contributed to this story.

When will TiVo’s big entry into the streaming device business, the TiVo Stream 4K, finally be available for purchase?

That’s a question some are asking now, more than three months after TiVo made a splashy introduction of the $70 streaming dongle at CES back in January. At the time, TiVo said its Stream 4K—which it said would support all major OTT apps available in Google Play, in addition to its own new TiVo+ streaming service—would be available in April. 

Also read: TiVo Joins the Crowded OTT Device Market with Stream 4K

TiVo posted a video on Twitter Thursday, with reps for the company talking about how “super-excited” they are about the product, which was still listed in the tweet as “coming very soon.” In fact, the URL to the TiVo Stream 4K product page still has that coda: https://www.tivo.com/comingsoon.

When Next TV asked over Twitter how soon, a company rep responded, “The exact date of its availability hasn't been announced yet.”

Another Twitter responder  also expressed some impatience (see below):

Indeed, among the many consumer surveys looking at OTT consumption during the pandemic lockdown, Tubi published one this week suggesting that consumers are spending each day, on average, an entire workday (eight hours) streaming video. A publicly traded maker of OTT devices, such as Roku, hasn’t yet indicated in a first-quarter earnings report that hardware sales are way up. But nobody will be surprised if that happens next month. 

Corporately, TiVo has a lot going on right now, not the least of which is its developing merger with Xperi. But speaking to investors in January, after the TiVo Stream 4K was named a Wall Street Journal “Best of CES” product, TiVo CEO Dave Shull defined the device as a priority. 

“We’re only talking about streaming now,” he told attendees of the Needham Growth Conference in New York. “We’re going to bet on the streaming wars. We have a really easy solution to them.”

Shull said TiVo’s advances in search and discovery, along with Xperi’s entry into device markets like smart TVs, should enable the TiVo 4K Stream to quickly catch up in an OTT device market dominated by Roku and Amazon. 

The question remains, though, when will the TiVo 4K Stream ever get to that market? And what’s holding it up at this point?

TiVo’s announcement at CES in early January about entering the at least somewhat established over-the-top device market was a surprise to some. But the company, pivoting away from its DVR pioneer roots into the video streaming age, has an angle.

With its digital video recorders and video systems already well-infiltrated into the Tier 2 and 3 cable markets for more than a decade, TiVo believes there is “tremendous opportunity” to also provide small and midsize cable operators with its new Android TV-powered TiVo Stream 4K OTT device, president and CEO Dave Shull said.

Speaking during TiVo’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Feb. 18, Shull called the company’s cable partners “the heart of our 21 million users.” Many of these operator clients are now looking to exit or marginalize the decreasingly profitable pay TV business, but they don’t want to jeopardize their core broadband offerings in the process. That’s why these cable companies are looking to set up their growing ranks of broadband-only customers with inexpensive OTT solutions.

For example, virtual multichannel video programming distributors fuboTV and Philo have carved out distribution deals with groups like the National Cable Television Cooperative, which represents more than 750 independent MSOs. These operators market vMVPD services to broadband customers in lieu of bundling their own pricey TV services. Meanwhile, technology companies like MobiTV offer this operator constituency turnkey pay TV solutions.

“We will continue to approach these relationships as strategic growth partnerships, whether it's around accelerating the deployment of our IPTV solution for their video subscribers or giving them the best-in-the-world streaming solution with TiVo Stream,” Shull said. “We believe our product strategy has the potential to drive significant revenue for TiVo over the long term.”

TiVo is not alone in recognizing the potential of this cable operator market. Earlier last week, Amazon, which touts a global leading 40 million users for its Fire TV device ecosystem, announced that NCTC member operators will now be able to distribute its Fire TV OTT devices at a discount to their customers.

“As more of our members deploy app-based pay TV offerings, having the option to purchase Amazon Fire TV streaming devices at a discount will help our broadband and cable operator members retain video customers by creating affordable options that do not rely on a traditional set-top box,” NCTC president and CEO Rich Fickle said in a statement. “These devices are a great compliment to services like MobiTV or for broadband only offerings by our members.”

TiVo, though, has long-established relationships with hundreds of U.S. and foreign operators, which use its software products, such as the Android TV-powered TiVo Experience 4, to form the foundation of their video user experience. When it announced the debut of the TiVo Stream 4K at CES, TiVo said it already had an agreement with cable operator Schurz Communications, which is marketing the device to its broadband-only subscribers.

The TiVo Stream 4K, introduced with a suggested $49.99 retail price, supports most major OTT apps — Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, HBO, Vudu and YouTube, among them — as well as TiVo’s own recently launched OTT programming service, TiVo Plus.

Pivoting to OTT

TiVo is making a pivot into the OTT market as it merges with technology company Xperi, a maker of embedded technologies found in smart TVs, among other devices. That’s another infiltration angle for TiVo Stream 4K.

Shull said before the Feb. 20 call that he’ll step down from TiVo’s top role when the merger closes, ceding to Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner. Until then, he’s spearheading TiVo’s effort to, in his words, “get away from its DVR roots” and join the streaming age.

With OTT entertainment choices containing to expand, he said there is “no Moore’s Law to consumer attention spans.”

Given this paradigm, TiVo’s development of search and discovery technology will also be a key benefit as it looks to pry open Roku and Amazon’s dominance of the OTT device market.

“Attention to content and the time any one person can devote to it have limits on how they scale,” Shull said. "But I knew TiVo had a unique advantage here. Rather than trying to optimize the consumer for the entertainment market, we're trying to optimize the market for the consumer.”

TiVo’s announcement at CES in early January that it is belatedly entering the at least somewhat established OTT device market was a surprise to some. But the company, pivoting away from its DVR-pioneering roots into the video streaming age, has an angle. 

With its DVRs and video systems already well infiltrated into the Tier 2 and 3 cable markets going back more than a decade, TiVo, according to President and CEO Dave Shull, believes that there is a “tremendous opportunity” to also provide small and mid-size cable operators with its new Android TV-powered TiVo Stream 4K OTT device. 

Speaking Thursday during TiVo’s fourth quarter earnings call, Shull called TiVo’s cable partners “the heart of our 21 million users.” Many of these operator clients are now looking to get out, or marginalize, the decreasingly profitable pay TV business, but they don’t want to jeopardize their core broadband offerings in the process. That’s why these cable companies are looking to set up their growing ranks of broadband-only customers with inexpensive OTT solutions. 

For example, virtual MVPD providers fuboTV and Philo have carved out distribution deals with groups like the National Cable TV Cooperative (NCTC), which represents more than 750 independent cable operators. These operators market vMVPD services to broadband customers in lieu of bundling their own pricey TV services. Meanwhile, technology companies like MobiTV offer this operator constituency turnkey pay TV solutions. 

“We will continue to approach these relationships as strategic growth partnerships, whether it's around accelerating the deployment of our IPTV solution for their video subscribers or giving them the best-in-the-world streaming solution with TiVo Stream,” Shull said. “We believe our product strategy has the potential to drive significant revenue for TiVo over the long term.”

Related: TiVo Joins the Crowded OTT Device Market with Stream 4K

TiVo is not alone in recognizing the potential of this cable operator market. Earlier this week, Amazon, which touts a global leading 40 million users for its Fire TV device ecosystem, announced that NCTC member operators will now be able to distribute its Fire TV OTT devices at discount to their customers. 

Related: Amazon Infiltrates Fire TV into Cable TV Market with NCTC Deal

"As more of our members deploy app-based pay-TV offerings, having the option to purchase Amazon Fire TV streaming devices at a discount will help our broadband and cable operator members retain video customers by creating affordable options that do not rely on a traditional set-top box. These devices are a great compliment to services like MobiTV or for broadband only offerings by our members," said Rich Fickle, president of NCTC, in a statement.

TiVo, however, has long established relationships with hundreds of U.S. and foreign operators, which use its software products, such as the Android TV-powered TiVo Experience 4, to form the foundation of their video user experience. When it announced the debut of the TiVo Stream 4K at CES, TiVo said it already had an agreement with cable operator Schurz Communications, which is marketing the device to its broadband-only subscribers.

Introduced with an MSRP of $49.99, the TiVo Stream 4K supports most major OTT apps—Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, HBO, Vudu and YouTube, among them—as well as TiVo’s own recently launched OTT programming service, TiVo Plus

Related: TiVo 'Needs to Get Over' Its DVR Past and Focus on Streaming, CEO Says

TiVo is making a pivot into the OTT market as it corporately merges with technology company Xperi, a maker of embedded technologies found in smart TVs, among other devices—another infiltration angle for TiVo Stream 4K.

Shull said before Thursday’s call that he’ll step down from TiVo’s top role when the merger closes, ceding to Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner. Until then, he’s spearheading TiVo’s effort to, in his words, “get away from its DVR roots” and join the streaming age. 

With OTT entertainment choices containing to expand, he said there is “no Moore’s Law to consumer attention spans.”

Given this paradigm, TiVo’s development of search and discovery technology will also be a key benefit as it looks to pry open Roku and Amazon’s dominance of the OTT device market. 

“Attention to content and the time any one person can devote to it have limits on how they scale,” Shull said. "But I knew TiVo had a unique advantage here. Rather than trying to optimize the consumer for the entertainment market, we're trying to optimize the market for the consumer.”