Xperi Corp. says it's lined up a seventh OEM smart TV making partner for its TiVo TVOS, an unnamed entity it says is a top 5 U.S. supplier that will launch TiVo-powered models domestically starting in the spring. 

Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner told equity analyst that the TiVo OS is on track to power 2 million "active devices" in Europe by the end of 2024. It aims to have 5 million in the market by the end of 2025.

And the company announced back in May that Japan's Panasonic had become its sixth OEM partner.

"Today, smart TVs powered by TiVo are available in 15 countries across Europe, including the largest economies under 17 different brands. Our TiVo OS production volumes are increasing with daily activations accelerating," Kirchner said. 

Xperi has embarked on a marathon-like quest to compete with Roku, Google, Amazon, Samsung and other suppliers of TVOS, a high-stakes gambit that offers winning companies control of data and advanced advertising dollars, among other incentives. 

TiVo's quest to establish a foothold in a global TVOS business dominated by streaming giants marched on in the first quarter, with the video company adding a sixth smart TV OEM partner, an unnamed Japanese brand, and looking to expand into 2 million active TVs globally by the end of the year. 

Reporting Q1 earnings Thursday, TiVo parent company Xperi Corp. also said that it's on track to expand the TiVo smart TV OS platform into the U.S. by the end of 2024. (Here's Xperi's earnings release.)

Also read: Xperi CEO's Bold Declaration: TiVo OS Will Power 7 Million Smart TVs By 2026

First-quarter revenue for Xperi's "Media Platform" quadrant was up 25% year over year to $11.562 million.

Xperi and its TiVo brand are trying to infiltrate a global software business dominated by Roku, Google, Amazon and Samsung, offering smart TV OEM brands an operating system that gives them more control over branding, not to mention advertising transactions that occur across their devices. 

Xperi confirmed Thursday that European retailer Argos is now selling TiVo-powered smart TVs under its Bush house brand. Vestel, meanwhile, is shipping smart TVs "powered by TiVo" into "most major European countries" under at least a dozen brands. 

Overall, Xperi reported a 6% year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue to $119 million, with sales from its pay TV sector dropping 6% to $56.806 million in Q1. With the help of its new "Video Over Broadband" initiative, Xperi expects pay TV to be even by the end of the year. 

With its TiVo-branded smart TV operating system slowly proliferating across Europe, Xperi Corp. predicted Wednesday that the streaming platform business will yield it annual revenue of around $190 million in two years. 

The forecast, rendered during Xperi's Q4 earnings report, upped a guidance issued a year ago suggesting the TVOS business would spin off an annual run rate of $140 million by 2026. 

Xperi also predicted its video-over-broadband business for pay TV operators will reach $100 million in the same two-year span. 

Also read: Xperi Touts Four Tier 3 Operator Clients for Its New 'TiVo Broadband'

Both businesses are in their early developmental phases. 

In its presentation to equity analysts Wednesday, Xperi also included forecasts for its in-car entertainment efforts.

TiVo is trying to build a modest beachhead in the video platform business dominated globally by Google, Amazon, Roku and Samsung. 

The going has been slow. 

After finally launching its TiVo-powered smart TVs in the Czech Republic back in November, Xperi said Vestel-manufactured TiVo sets are now in seven European countries, including the UK and Germany. 

Xperi said it has reached another OEM agreement with another smart TV manufacturer, China's SkyWorth, which will include the TiVo OS in its 2024 product line. 

Meanwhile, Euro retailer Argos expects to have TiVo TVs made by Sharp in stores, sold under the Bush brand, in the UK and other parts of Europe this spring.

Xperi reported a 3.7% gain in full year revenue to $521.3 million. Its GAAP net losses narrowed in 2023 to $139.7 million from $761.2 in 2022. 

Here's the company's latest earnings release. 

TiVo parent company Xperi Corp. has announced four new tier-3 cable operator clients for its recently introduced TiVo Broadband video product. 

Buckeye Broadband, Blue Stream Fiber, Blue Ridge Communications and Bluepeak have now deployed the streaming solution, which blends the TiVo+ FAST platform with access to popular subscription streaming services including Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, streamed over Evolution Digital-built Evo Force 1 and Fuse 4K customer premises equipment. 

Xperi introduced TiVo Broadband at CES in Las Vegas back in early January. The platform is targeted as a solution for tier 2 and 3 telco companies that still want to offer video to their connectivity customers, but no longer want to endure the costly burden of traditional soup-to-nuts linear pay TV distribution. 

TiVo Broadband is also billed as a kind of gateway drug to TiVo's managed IPTV services, which were built out back in May 2021 when Xperi acquired MobiTV in a bankruptcy auction. 

“We have continued to build upon our commitment to provide our customers with the best, most cost-effective video consumption service, making the implementation of TiVo Broadband an obvious choice for us,” said Geoff Shook, president and general manager at Buckeye Broadband. “We believe the TiVo Broadband service will provide a meaningful alternative programming source for our customers as we continue to innovate and offer complementary solutions that ease programming issues.”

Xperi reports fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday.

Xperi announced several more turns of the screw for its TiVo branded smart TV OS.

The tech company has forged an agreement to sell "Powered by TiVo" smart TVs at Argos via the European retailer's Bush TV brand. Argos operates 1,238 stores in the United Kingdom. 

Xperi also announced an OEM agreement to have Shenzhen, China-based manufacturer Konka build Powered by TiVo smart TVs. Konka is recognized as a top-5 Chinese consumer-electronics brand that, in addition to other brands, makes and sells TVs globally under its own moniker, primarily powered by Google's Android TV OS. 

Xperi said in November that TVs made under its OEM relationship with Istanbul-based Vestel (established back in 2022) had just arrived on shelves under the JVC brand in the Czech Republic.

Also, in August, Xperi said that Sharp Corp., now owned by Taiwan's FoxConn, would start making and selling Powered by TiVo smart TVs later this year. 

Xperi is pitching tier 2 smart TV manufacturers and sellers a means of getting into the connected TV advertising business, which is projected to be worth $36 billion by 2026, without having to surrender their branding and monetization to the large TVOS incumbents, Roku, Amazon and Google. 

Xperi has pledged that it will have 7 million users for its Linux-based TiVo video operating system by 2026. 

Xperi made its announcement Monday from CES 2024 in Las Vegas. 

After some delay, Xperi has finally put smart TV's manufactured by Turkey-based Vestel on store shelves, with sets carrying the JVC brand now being sold in the Czech Republic. 

Other European countries will see Vestel-made TVs arrive at their stores, carrying a broader spectrum of the Vestel brand portfolio, "in the coming weeks," Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner said during Xperi's third-quarter earnings call on Monday. (A transcript of that call is available here from Yahoo Finance.)

When it announced its OEM deal with Vestel in August 2022, Xperi was already seemingly late on a long-gestating plan to launch a smart TV OS that would compete with Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV and Samsung Tizen, among other software streaming video platform makers. 

But Kirchner said Monday that Xperi is still on track to fulfill its goal of securing 7 million TiVo TVOS users by the end of 2025. He also said that Xperi has signed a fourth TV OEM partner that will begin integrating the TiVO OS into sets starting in 2024, and that more OEM announcements will be made during Xperi's year-end call in February. 

Listen: In our sponsored webinar "Power Hour" series, Xperi product chief Geir Skaaden discusses the company's TVOS strategy

Xperi is pursuing this advertising-based TVOS opportunity by targeting tier 2 smart TV manufacturers who don't have the resources to launch their own gateway operating system, but who also don't want to cede branding control of their TV's UX to Roku, Amazon or Google. 

Separately but relatedly, Xperi is chasing other video business opportunities with the TiVo brand, announcing that more than 100 TV operators globally are using TiVo's IPTV solutions. 

DENVER — Thirty months after acquiring the distressed assets of IPTV provider MobiTV at auction for $18.5 million, Xperi and its TiVo brand are making moves with the business. 

The company used this week’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo to announce a new hardware partnership, with Denver-based Evolution Digital’s Evo Force 1 set-top and Fuse 4K streaming stick becoming the exclusive devices in North and South America for the ongoing MobiTV concern, which has been rebranded as “TiVo’s Managed IPTV Service.”

The move follows a similar arrangement with U.K. tech company Amino in Europe.

The deal marks only the latest collaboration between TiVo's software and Evolutions's hardware.  

“Our continued collaboration represents a significant milestone for both companies and a major leap forward in enhancing the streaming video aggregation for service providers’ broadband-only customers,” Marc Cohen, chief revenue officer at Evolution Digital, said in a statement. “Our combined expertise offers innovative, high-quality video solutions that set new industry standards.“

Added TiVo senior VP of global sales Jeffrey Glahn: “As a preferred development partner for Evolution Digital, we endeavor to provide solutions to the broadband market to stay competitive, retain customers, get to market quickly and minimize video costs.“

Xperi Corp. said on Wednesday that Sharp Corp. will integrate the TiVo TVOS into smart TVs it sells in Europe starting next year. 

Sharp, which is now owned by Taipei, Taiwan-based Foxconn, will become the second major supplier of TiVo-powered smart TVs, with Istanbul, Turkey-based Vestel signing on to produce TiVo sets for the Euro market last year. After a delay, those Vestel sets are supposed to hit European stores in the second half of 2023. 

Making the announcement during its second-quarter earnings call Wednesday, Xperi also said that it has locked own a third, as-yet unnamed smart TV supplier for its TVOS. Xperi also said that TiVo-powered smart TVs will reach North America in 2024.

BMW has also started using TiVO UX to power its in-car entertainment systems. 

Xperi has been targeting second-tier smart TV OEMs with a third-party TVOS solution that's more flexible and customizable than software offered by Roku, Google and Amazon. (Next TV hosted Xperi's product chief, Geir Skaaden, for a sponsored webinar last last year, during which he detailed the company's smart TV business model. You can register and watch/listen to that archived event for free here.)

“We chose TiVo’s OS not only because of the superior product but also because we wanted to offer a user experience of Sharp quality elements with more variety and freedom,” said Nick Chen, head of Europe and VP of Sharp's TV-system business unit.

Added Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner: “Sharp’s selection of 'Powered by TiVo' is further proof that we are meeting a crucial need for smart TV brands. The accelerated adoption of our independent media platform by consumer electronic brands, as well as by BMW in the car, lays a strong foundation for the future growth and success of our platform ecosystem.”

For those of us frustrated this week by watching a big media company, following its second multi-billion-dollar merger in five years, spend hundreds of millions of dollars more to relaunch the same subscription streaming service all over again, Wednesday's in-car video announcement from Xperi Corp. is kind of refreshing. 

San Jose, Calif.-based Xperi, a company rooted in niche tech spaces including in-car entertainment, spent $3 billion three years ago to buy video company TiVo. And no part of the carcass seems to have gone unconsumed and wasted. 

As we've amply reported, Xperi is already hard at work trying to establish its "Powered By TiVo" platform as a gateway TVOS competitor to Roku, Amazon and Google in Europe. 

And now, BMW will use Powered By TiVo to deliver linear and on-demand video entertainment for Series-5 and above vehicle models. 

“Our independent media platform strategy is well suited for the automotive industry as they make advancements in in-cabin technology and creating new and adaptive experiences. We will work closely with BMW to ensure that the in-car video media platform by TiVo provides a best-in-class in-car entertainment experience,” said Jon Kirchner, CEO of Xperi, in a statement. “Unlike existing platforms, the Powered by TiVo platform traverses entertainment mediums and gives OEMs significantly more control over the user experience.”

Nice to see synergy does indeed exist somewhere. 

Xperi Corp. said it has signed a second "top 10" smart TV OEM to deploy its TiVo-branded TVOS in Europe.

Reporting first-quarter earnings Tuesday, the San Jose, Calif.-based technology company said it wasn't ready to offer any specific details, most notably who the original equipment manufacturer even is. 

Xperi said TV's from the double-secret mystery OEM would start rolling out, initially in Europe, sometime in 2024. 

Also read: Xperi CEO's Bold Declaration: TiVo OS Will Power 7 Million Smart TVs By 2026

The announcement of a second OEM partner comes more than eight months after Xperi announced an OEM deployment deal with Istanbul-based Vestel, which was supposed to start this ongoing spring rolling out smart TVs in Europe under the brand names Daewoo, Regal, Hitachi, Telefunken and JVC.

That rollout has now been delayed until later this year. 

Listen: In our sponsored webinar "Power Hour" series, Xperi product chief Geir Skaaden discusses the company's TVOS strategy

"While our software stack is ready, given market dynamics and based on retail planning with Vestel, we now expect the first shipments in Europe to be in the second half of 2023, in preparation for the holiday buying season," Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner told equity analysts during Tuesday's earnings call. "This will have no impact on our guidance for the year, as only a small amount of monetization revenue as expected in late-2023."

In November, Xperi also signed a deal with China's Shenzhen KTC Technology, a top-six OEM manufacturer of flat-panel displays, which will use the TiVo reference designs in its sets enabling future TVOS deployment deals. 

Xperi is pitching its Linux-based TiVo operating system solution as a more flexible alternative to smart TV makers that don't have the wherewithal to create their own UX, offering more monetization and customization features relative to Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Google TV.

"We expect to have a footprint of at least 7 million TVs powered by TiVo within three years, which would yield an annualized revenue run rate of approximately $140 million, while delivering meaningful margin expansion over time," Kirchner told equity analysts back in February.

So it would seem the announcement of a third OEM partner would need to occur more quickly than eight months from now. And Xperi needs to start getting its TiVo TVs into the market. 

Certainly, in its competitive quest to join the highly competitive race for gateway control of the global connected living room, Xperi has its doubters. 

"That's not a significant player right now in TiVo, and it's hard for me to imagine that a new entrant would be able to gain the necessary scale and technology -- and just size of the of everything -- that's needed to be in that business. It would be quite difficult," Roku CEO Anthony Wood remarked in February. 

Xperi reported $127 million in Q1 revenue, up 7% year over year. Here's the company's Q1 earnings release. 

Written off by the CEO of by incumbent rival Roku last week as not "significant" and facing too many obstacles to ever establish a presence in the global TVOS market, Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner used his company's fourth-quarter earnings call to issue a bold declaration. 

"We expect to have a footprint of at least 7 million TVs powered by TiVo within three years, which would yield an annualized revenue run rate of approximately $140 million, while delivering meaningful margin expansion over time," Kirchner told equity analysts.  

Further, Kirchner took his own shot at Roku, specifically noting the reaction of the smart TV OEM market to Roku's announcement that it will manufacture its own branded smart TV line and compete with OEM partners at retail. 

"I think that announcement underscores the need for an independent media platform," Kirchner said. "We've had quite robust engagement prior to that announcement, but I would say that announcement has created some interest, as people look to engage in independent platforms. 

Kirchner said that TVs powered by TiVo and manufactured by Istanbul-based Vestel, Europe's largest smart TV maker, will begin rolling out this spring under brand names including Daewoo, Regal, Hitachi, Telefunken and JVC. Xperi demonstrated those TVs at CES in Las Vegas last month to a warm reception, he said. 

Xperi has also carved out a deal with Chinese smart TV OEM KTC. 

Xperi's stated goal is to offer smaller and mid-range smart TV manufacturers lacking the scale and resources to create their own TVOS an alternative to incumbent solutions offered by Roku, Google and Amazon.

TiVo's Linux-based software solution, Xperi argues, will enable these electronics makers more customization, and control over data and advanced advertising. 

But as pungently expressed by Roku CEO Anthony Wood last week, Xperi and TiVo have doubters. 

"That's not a significant player right now in TiVo, and it's hard for me to imagine that a new entrant would be able to gain the necessary scale and technology -- and just size of the of everything -- that's needed to be in that business. It would be quite difficult," Wood said. 

Kirchner made the case Tuesday that TiVo is hardly starting from scratch, noting its extensive installed software base in the global pay TV ecosystem, as well as the retail proliferation of OTT device TiVo Stream 4K. 

"We already power 30 million households now with video-based services," he said. "We are uniquely positioned as being a company that already has a very large video service business doing business all over the world over decades."

We at Next TV keep harping on it -- but Roku seems to almost consciously ignore the next big frontier in connected TV, Europe. And to us, TiVo actually seems a bit more entrenched. 

Roku's currently enjoys a dominant position in the CTV market in North America -- it said it's software now powers 38% of smart TVs sold in the U.S.

But Europe is a much more wide-open TVOS market, one in which Roku is just starting out in, as well. Also worth mentioning was Xperi's $109 million purchase of Oslo-based video software company Vewd last year. 

Just over 18 months after it outbid Amino to acquire bankrupt IPTV managed services provider MobiTV for $18.5 million, Xperi has contracted the UK video tech company to provide its Android operator tier set-tops for the platform. 

Now branded as "TiVo Managed IPTV," the platform will deploy Amino's Amigo 7X set-tops, which provide UHD resolution, High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing including HDR10 and HLG, and Bluetooth connectivity, among other features. (A full Amino spec sheet can be found here.)

TiVo Managed IPTV allows cable operators and other pay TV operators a way to flexibly and inexpensively deliver popular app-based OTT services to their customers 

The integrated solution is backed by Amino’s  SaaS platform, Amino Engage, for centralized device management, combined with the company's customer support and maintenance services.

 “The TiVo Managed IPTV Service continues to be a popular option for tier II and III operators because of its fully featured, end-to-end capabilities. So it makes sense that we’d integrate our managed Amigo 7X set-top to provide operators best-of-breed options when launching new video services,” said Donald McGarva, CEO of the Amino Group. 

Amino announced the deal from CES 2023 in Las Vegas. 

Across Europe, North America and other regions, technology and consumer electronics companies are locked in high-stakes competition for control of the smart TV operating system market. And for good reason. Control of the TVOS establishes a "gateway" to the connected home, enabling monetization across advertising, data, subscriptions and other lucrative revenue streams.

A recent entry to the market, TiVo is looking to establish a customizable solution that enables smart TV manufacturers more control of their branding and monetization vs. incumbent third-party OS solutions.

Please join Geir Skaaden, executive VP and chief products and services officer for TiVo parent company Xperi Corp., as he discusses the current state of the global gateway OS market with Next TV Managing Editor Daniel Frankel. "The Next TV Power Hour: TiVo on the Gateway to the Connected Home" is a free live virtual discussion produced by Next TV and Xperi Corp.

Xperi Corp. continues to find ways to infiltrate the wide-open European smart TV operating system market, signing a deal to integrate its TiVo-branded TVOS into Amlogic chipsets targeted to smart TVs shipped and sold in that region. 

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Amlogic will now sell its T962D4 and T950D4 chipsets to smart TV original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in Europe. 

Also see: Register for Free to Our First 'Next TV Power Hour' Virtual Discussion: 'TiVo on The Gateway to The Connected Home'

“By working with the team at Amlogic and other mutual smart TV ecosystem partners, we can offer a turnkey, cost-effective and market-ready TV OS and progress towards our goal of becoming a leading independent TV OS platform supplier," said Benjamin Maughan, general manager of smart TV media platform at Xperi.

Also read: A 'Landmark Win': Xperi Signs Its First Smart TV OEM for TiVo Stream TVOS

Xperi has already struck a deal to integrate its TiVo-branded, Linux-based software into smart TVs manufactured by Vestel, a leading European supplier of TVs. Introducing its TiVo-enabled TVs at CES this week, Vestel said it would start selling them this spring under brand names including Vestel, Daewoo, Regal, Hitachi, Telefunken and JVC. 

Xperi, which is showing off its TVOS at CES 2023 in Las Vegas this week, is trying to appeal to tier 2 OEMs with a operating-system that is more customizable and flexible than the dominant third-party incumbent solutions -- namely, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Google.

Unlike market leaders Samsung, LG and Vizio, most of these smaller OEMs don't have the resources to create and manage their own TVOS. 

Meanwhile, while the U.S. market is dominated by the aforementioned incumbents, less streaming entrenched Europe offers a more open opportunity to insurgents like Xperi. 

Added James Xie, senior VPof corporate business strategy at Amlogic: “Working with Xperi to integrate TiVo OS on Amlogic 4K and 2K chipsets will make it easier and faster for TV OEMs to deliver a great multimedia experience to U.S. and European consumers. We believe that the industry will benefit from a partner-oriented, independent media platform that provides the necessary scale, both in technology and content, to satisfy the global media landscape.“

Xperi Corp. is touting its second customer win as it seeks to globally proliferate its TiVo-branded smart TV OS.

China's Shenzhen KTC Technology is a top-six OEM manufacturer of flat-panel displays, serving brand clients including Dell, Asus, Lenovo, Samsung and LG.

Also read: Xperi IDs Europe's Vestel as the First Smart TV OEM Customer for Its New TiVo-Branded TVOS

Making the disclosure during Xperi's third-quarter earnings call Tuesday, CEO Patrick Harshman conceded the KTC signing isn't an "express brand win," but the company does supply "turnkey reference designs" for its brand clients.

"They believe there is demand for our OS solution, and they're making it available to their clients. It's up to us to connect the dots," Harshman added.

Xperi also announced in August that Istanbul, Turkey-based Vestel, the largest shipper of smart TVs in Europe, providing TVs under brand names including Toshiba, Panasonic and JVC, is licensing its Linux-based TiVo operating system.

Harshman said during Tuesday's call that 40% of the global smart TV market is looking for an "independent OS solution" that allows smart TV brands to customize their operating environment and control the overall customer experience. This is opposed to solutions like Roku and Amazon Fire TV, which provide gateway operating systems that control the branding and overall UX aesthetic.

Xperi is also making headway with its connected car ambitions, and it just spun off its IP licensing unit. It has lofty goals for its smart TV business, but that potentially explosive revenue potential is still a ways from hitting the balance sheets.

For the third quarter, Xperi reported a 3% increase in sales to $121.6 million, missing analysts' consensus forecasts of $125 million. The company's stock price has fallen about 7% since Tuesday. ■

The Next TV Summit on September 13, part of the 10th annual NYC TV Week, will for the first time include the Next TV Innovation Awards, recognizing CEOs, technologists, strategists, creatives, marketers and other executives leading some of the most innovative companies in the video business. Each day from Sept. 2-13, our Next TV SmartBrief will profile one of our seven 2022 Innovation Awards honorees. (You can sign up for the SmartBrief here.) For more information about the summit and the award winners and other NYC TV Week events visit nyctvweek.com.

Geir Skaaden 
Executive VP and Chief Products and Services Officer Xperi Corp. 

Xperi purchased TiVo for $3 billion three years ago. 

Geir Skaaden is a key Xperi architect, helping build a global streaming strategy based on that acquisition. Xperi wants its TiVo Stream TVOS to compete on the global stage with the dominant gateway streaming OS companies, Google, Amazon and Roku. Xperi’s TVOS will be “very different from the big tech platforms, which take away the customer and maintain all the economics that go with that relationship,” Skaaden told Next TV in July, shortly after his company announced the purchase of European video software company Vewd, a key ingredient in its product TVOS plan. 

Xperi sees its market as being tier-two smart-TV makers in regions like Europe — those that don’t have the wherewithal or desire to supply their own OS, as Samsung and LG do. 

Xperi’s Linux-based, TiVo-branded software will give these smart TV manufacturers a customizable platform alternative to the big third-party OS gateways, allowing them to maintain their branding and their economics. 

Xperi already has a deal with an unnamed smart-TV manufacturer to use the software. The product will hit shelves in mid2023, Xperi said. 

Previously announced Next TV Innovation Award honorees:

Todd Achilles
Co-founder, CEO and President, Evoca

Meredith Brace
Chief Marketing Officer, Samba TV

Matt Duarte 
VP of Strategy and Business Development YES Network 

Shalini Govil-Pai
GM and VP of TV Platforms, Google

Erick Opeka 
Chief Strategy Officer, Cinedigm

William J. Rouhana
CEO, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment

Xperi Corp. announced that the Vewd OpX, a software that helps power pay TV set-tops across Europe and North America, is being expanded to Android TV Operator Tier. 

In fact, well before Xperi made the announcement at the IBC Show in Amsterdam late last week, and even before Xperi purchased Oslo, Norway-based Vewd for $109 million in early July, OpX had been integrated into the proprietary Android TV-powered set-tops used by ATSC 3.0-based virtual MVPD Evoca here in the U.S. 

“Android TV is increasingly popular as an OS for pay TV set-top boxes, and with this new implementation, we’re excited to simplify operators’ path into the Android TV world,” Sascha Prüter, Vewd senior VP of product management, said in a statement. 

"This latest deployment on Android TV demonstrates the flexibility of Vewd OpX in enabling operators to deliver a consistent user experience across OS platforms and to manage all variants via a unified cloud management system.”

Added Mitch Weinraub, Evoca VP of product management: “For our service built on the ATSC 3.0 standard, we needed a robust, flexible solution for customizing the user experience on Android TV set-top boxes. Vewd OpX fulfills Google’s requirements for the Android TV Operator Tier, enabling easy content discovery and consumption across broadcast and OTT channels, apps, games, and more using our new receiver, called Pilot.” ■

Xperi Corp. has revealed the name of the first smart TV OEM for its new TiVo-branded TVOS -- it's Istanbul, Turkey-based Vestel, Europe's largest TV set supplier. 

That the big reveal turned out to be Vestel, which manufacturers TVs under popular Japanese brand names, including Toshiba, Panasonic and JVC, probably isn't a surprise to many industry watchers. 

Vestel already carved out an agreement 11 months ago with Oslo, Norway-based video software maker Vewd to license Operator TV, which allows its smart TVs to function in pay TV ecosystems sans set-top box. 

Vewd was just purchased in early July by Xperi for $109 million. 

"We're in a unique position to really put a product in the marketplace that meets [OEM] customer requirements, but is also best-in-class in terms of user experience," Xperi products chief Geir Skaaden told Next TV in a phone interview conducted late last week. 

Vestel will begin deploying its branded TVs using TiVo software as the main operating system in the middle of next year, Xperi said. You can see a sizzle reel for Xperi's new TiVo connected TV operating system here. 

Of the roughly 185 million smart TVs sold annually, Skaaden explained, around 100 million of those go into "high-quality" ad markets in places like North America and Western Europe.

Skaaden continued to hammer home points he'd made in an earlier interview with us right after the Vewd acquisition in early July: 

For one, smart TV manufacturers, particularly tier 2 rank and smaller, are increasingly looking for ways to bypass the hegemony of third-party TVOS giants Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Google TV/Android TV. 

These relationships, he said, often consume the brand identity of the manufacturer's TV sets, an important asset in which the TV often serves as a low-margin, or even loss-leader device, sold primarily to gain a customer relationship foothold for sales of higher margin refrigerators, washing machines and other consumer electronics products down the road. 

That calculus becomes more difficult when the consumer believes they have a "Roku TV" and has no idea who the actual manufacturer is. 

"That's why we say our TVs are powered by TiVo, they're not TiVo-powered TVs," Skaaden said. 

Xperi estimates that 40% of TV manufacturers are searching for such a flexible solution that circumvents the "walled gardens" they're being run into. 

The issue of controlling the customer relationship becomes compounded when elements like data collection and advanced advertising are considered -- especially with total connected TV advertising spending expected to quadruple in girth to $48 billion by 2027. The TiVo TVOS, Skaaden said, will provide a customizable Linux based solution that will deliver far more user control to the OEM. 

Using the brand name it acquired with its $3 million purchase of TiVo nearly three years ago, Xperi believes it can solve a key pain point for CE manufacturers that lack the wherewithal to create their own TVOS, as the largest makers like Samsung and LG do. 

"You need scale, you need reach, and you need the content partnerships," Skaaden said. "We’ve been in the [video] business for over 20 years, and we have all those relationships."

Is Xperi getting started too late?

No, said Skaaden, adding, "We've seen this movie before of becoming too  dependent on one or two companies in the smart phone industry.

"Billions of devices have been sold, but everyone who has made phones, including Samsung, has had a hard time making an economic profit," he noted. "All the profit has gone to Apple and Google. ... And we believe people are going to be reluctant to throw their hat in the ring wit these big [TVOS] platforms."

TiVo said it's ambitions are further aided by the fact that 30 million consumers worldwide already use its video software, most of via pay TV channels. 

Xperi says it has its first smart TV customer for its embedded TVOS, TiVo Stream. 

Disclosing the vendor relationship during Monday's second-quarter earnings call, Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner wouldn't reveal the name of the smart TV maker -- it's a "leading tier 2 provider that makes multiple TV sets under multiple brands," he disclosed. But Kirchner called the deal a "landmark win" and said the first smart TVs powered by TiVo Stream will emerge in the middle of 2023. 

Xperi, which paid $3 billion to acquire TiVo two years ago, sees the business of providing media platforms to smart TV, pay TV and the automotive industry as its biggest growth sector going forward. 

The company reported 5% year-over-year growth in second-quarter revenue to $234 million, with $126.2 million coming from the Xperi products business. The rest of Xperi's income derives from patent licensing, an operation that will officially be spun off next month into a new enterprise called Adeia.

Kirchner said on Monday that 40% of the smart TV market is looking for an independent TVOS solution, an alternative to Roku, Amazon or Google that will enable them to have more customizable control over the software environment, and importantly, the user experience and monetization.

The catch phrase, as described by Kirchner: "People looking for an OEM-branded experience powered by TiVo, and not looking for a TiVo-powered TV. 

Speaking to Next TV following Xperi's $109 million purchase of Dutch video software company Vewd earlier this summer, Xperi products chief Geir Skaaden said that target market includes most "tier 2" smart TV makers in Europe, and some in the U.S. 

Xperi launched an Android TV-powered connected TV device called TiVo Stream 4K 27 months ago. The company has said that its OS, breaking away from its own device hardware, will no longer be built on Google software.  

"We're moving to a Linux-based OS that will enable TV makers to have a best-in-class UX and great content and discovery, along with access to a monetization platform as we move downstream that will generate meaningful economics not just for us, but for the manufacturers as well," Kirchner said. 

Turning on monetization will unfold "over the next 12-15 months," he added.

"We're moving into a space as large and very attractive, and the opportunity is very meaningful, even if you capture a small portion of it," Kirchner said. 

TiVo parent company Xperi Holding Corp. is moving forward with long-talked-about plans to separate its patent business, and has hired a new chief financial officer, Keith Jones, for the new intellectual property (IP) spinoff, which is called Adeia.

Jones arrives from Rambus, where he serves as interim CFO of a publicly traded company that develops and licenses chip technologies.

Xperi said its spinoff of Adeia will be completed in the fall. (Adeia is 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.)

Also read: TiVo Owner Xperi Looks to (Finally) Spin Off Its Patent Troll Biz

“Keith is a proven leader and a great addition to the executive team at Adeia,” Adeia president Paul Davis said. “As Adeia becomes a separate publicly traded company, Keith’s expertise in the IP-licensing businesses and his public company experience are the perfect strategic fit for our organization.” 

Added Jones, “As Adeia nears separation, I am honored to lead as CFO and am particularly excited to work with the talented team at Adeia to continue to drive its IP leadership position in the market.”

Xperi, which announced the $109 million acquisition of European video software maker Vewd last month, is looking to transition its TiVo Stream OS as the main software stack for tier-2 makers of smart TVs. ▪️

The global economy might already be in recession. The streaming giants are getting absolutely killed on Wall Street. And absolutely nobody at this point is talking about buying a “TiVo-powered” smart TV.

But after agreeing to pay $109 million to buy bankrupt Norwegian video software company Vewd, Xperi Holdings stock spiked nearly 5% Monday.

As ESPN's virally memed — and conspiracy-minded — pro basketball analyst Brian Windhorst might ask, “Now, why do you think that is?”

Next TV wondered the same thing. So we caught up with Geir Skaaden, chief products and services officer for Xperi, as he was getting ready to fly out of LAX Monday to meet up with the Vewd management team in Norway. (Yup, they’re being kept around.)

The purchase not only brings in 275 talented, Oslo-based video software makers into the Xperi/TiVo fold, it completes Xperi's video software stack, particularly in the European region, where it sees a particular opportunity to supply Tier 2 smart-TV makers with an independent TVOS they can brand and control themselves.

“The completed tech stack gives us a turnkey solution in order to do that,” Skaaden said.

Larger smart-TV makers like Samsung, LG and Vizio, he explained, can afford to make their own TVOS, which frees them from having Roku, Amazon or Google brand their TVs and assume all the benefits of the direct customer relationship.

For consumer-electronics companies, entering the home with a smart TV is a great way to establish brand loyalty and sell consumers on higher-margin products like cheaply made refrigerators. That branding opportunity goes away when your purchaser identifies your smart TV as a “Roku TV” or a “Fire TV.”

“We’re offering them the ability to sell a TV that's simply powered by TiVo, but not a ‘TiVo TV,’ ” Skaaden said.

Secondly, controlling the gateway OS puts TV makers in control of monetization and data collection, which are other things they lose when Roku is powering their devices.

Xperi, which paid $3 billion for TiVo in December 2019, had outlined a timeline of late 2023 to early 2024 to get its TiVo-branded smart TV OS to market. But Skaaden said the company was already making accelerated progress on that effort before the Vewd purchase — it’s now going to occur earlier in 2023, he said.

Skaaden added that TiVo is still moving its OS away from Android TV and onto a Linux-based software platform.

Skaaden’s description of the market differs sharply from that of, say, Roku CEO Anthony Wood, who believes the smart TV OS market will eventually consolidate down to the big gateway controllers, with even Samsung and LG ultimately capitulating to Roku, Amazon and Google.

“We see a three-to-five-year timeline of opportunity that’s just emerging in places like Europe, so it made sense for us to invest now,“ Skaaden said, noting a very different business perspective. “We believe there's plenty of room for an independent platform.” ■

Xperi's Paleolithically slow entry into the smart TV OS business edged forward Monday, with the company announcing a $109 million purchase of Oslo, Norway-based Vewd Software.

Xperi, which had already worked with Vewd as a client, will absorb Vewd’s 275 employees into its ranks. 

“Xperi’s TiVo product offerings, when integrated with Vewd’s suite of streaming platform solutions, will help accelerate and scale the deployment of TiVo OS for connected TVs and expand our video-over-broadband offerings,” Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner said.

Technology company Xperi announced its $3 billion purchase of TiVo back in December 2019, with the aim of pairing TiVo's video UX know-how with its own inroads into the global smart-TV original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market. The aim is to compete with Amazon, Google, Roku — and now other entries, including Comcast — for “gatekeeper” status to the global connected TV living room. 

But the plan is taking a while to unfold. 

In April 2020, the combined company launched its own Android TV-based TVOS, TiVo Stream, in its own connected TV gadget, the TiVo Stream 4K, with plans to expand that software to the smart TV market. 

A year later, Xperi said it would break away from Android TV, with Google using its new Google TV to steer into the TVOS business as a competitor. And in its Q1 earnings report in May, Kirchner said that Xperi is now targeting a late-2023/early-2024 entry into the smart TV OS business. 

“Vewd’s global reach and expertise in providing support to content owners, TV OEMs, and SoC partners as they deploy middleware and OS solutions across various devices is tremendously valuable and further paves the way for additional monetization opportunities as we expand our global footprint of streaming devices,” Kirchner added. 

Xperi also announced plans earlier this year to split off its IP licensing business from its products operation. Vewd also fits into that strategy, Xperi claims. 

“The acquisition of Vewd also strengthens the growth outlook of our product business as we prepare to separate our IP and product businesses this fall. We expect incremental revenue of $10 million in the second half of this year, followed by substantially higher revenue and a positive EBITDA contribution in 2023,” added Kirchner.

As for Vewd, it’s coming off a Chapter 11 restructuring back in December, in which it traded $118 million in equity for debt relief. 

Notably, Vewd in October announced a partnership with smart-TV maker Vestel to make pay TV operator-ready TVs designed to replace set-top boxes and compete against Comcast’s Sky Glass initiative in Europe. ▪️

TiVo parent company Xperi Holdings has finally specified a timeline to introduce its TVOS into smart TVs -- "late 2023 or early 2024."

Xperi debuted a connected TV dongle, the TiVo Stream 4K, two years ago, with plans to license the gadget's OS, TiVo Stream, to smart TV OEMs. 

The company, which on Tuesday reported 16% revenue growth in Q1 to $257.4 million, also said a year ago that it would steer Stream away from its Android TV source code, with Google now also competing directly in the TVOS market. 

Also read: TiVo Owner Xperi Looks to (Finally) Spin Off Its Patent Troll Biz

Xperi has been largely coy about its Stream plans since then, but it did also disclose Tuesday that it's working to license the software to "tier 2" OEM partners. 

TiVo Stream and the TiVo Stream 4K  gadget are part of Xperi's "media platform" business sector, which accounts for only around 6% of its products sales but is also the product segement's fastest growing piece. "Pay TV" remains the largest generator in Xperi's products business, accounting for 54% of revenue. 

Xperi, which paid $3 billion for TiVo back in December 2019, said it is still on track to spin off its IP licensing unit, recently rebranded as Adeia, in the fall. 

Adeia, which siphons technology patent fees from pay TV giants ranging from Comcast to Dish Network, and streaming companies including Roku and Google, controls over 10,000 patents and accounts for 54% of Adeia's business. 

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.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) said Xperi Corp.’s Ashruf El-Dinary and Capitol Broadcasting’s Peter Sockett are the recipients of the 2022 Engineering Achievement Awards. They will be presented at the NAB Show in Las Vegas (April 23-27).

NAB president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt will present the awards during a panel titled “Hollywood’s ‘Binge Times' OTT Battle and NAB Engineering Awards” on Sunday, April 24 at 3 p.m. PT.

El-Dinary is senior VP of digital platforms at Xperi, where he currently leads efforts toward “new broadcast applications, upgrades to emergency alerting and deployment of digital radio solutions internationally,” NAB said in a release. 

He has 20 years of experience and previously worked at The John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He also taught courses at JHU's Whiting School of Engineering.

Sockett is the director of engineering and operations at Capitol Broadcasting Co. (CBC) television stations. He is also on the board of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and is the chair of the ATSC 3.0 Advanced Emergency Alerting Implementation team. He has earned three Emmy Awards, Broadcasting+Cable's Technology Leadership Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Sockett is also coinventor of a patent for geolocation. ■

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. 

Fox Corp. has become only the latest large TMT company to renew its IP licensing deal with TiVo and its new parent company, Xperi Holdings Corp. 

“We are very pleased to conclude this agreement with Fox, a producer and distributor of content through world-leading Fox brands,” said Samir Armaly, president, IP licensing of Xperi. “Fox has always worked to bring compelling content to its customers and continues to expand its direct-to-consumer audiences and capabilities.”

The Fox announcement was preceded just a day earlier by the trumpeting of a similar IP tie-up with media agency giant Horizon Media. TiVo/Xperi said it provides Horizon with a "foundational ingredient" to its "data stack to support client investments, driving improved outcomes in cross-platform media planning, buying, digital retargeting, and measurement."

Last week, TiVo/Xperi announced a patent licensing renewal with Google. 

Xperi, which acquired TiVo in late 2019 for $3 billion, has seen an acceleration of IP licensing deals since November, when it finally settled TiVo's four-year legal battle to put Comcast under IP heel. 

Xperi reported IP licensing revenue of $98 million in the first quarter. “Media IP” was up 30% during the January-March period, with recent licensing renewals secured with Cox Communications, Sony and TCL.

As if bringing Comcast to heel after a four-year legal battle wasn’t impressive enough, TiVo and its parent company, Xperi, have announced the renewal of their patent deal with Google.

For those of you keeping score at home, Google has a market capitalization exceeding $1.7 trillion, while Xperi is valued at just under $2.2 billion. 

"We are very pleased to conclude this agreement with Google, a world leader in OTT video with YouTube and Google TV, and a top 10 U.S. pay TV provider with YouTube TV," said Samir Armaly, president of IP licensing for Xperi, in a statement. "Google has always worked to bring content to the screen that's most convenient for users. This agreement illustrates the relevance of TiVo's innovations across all forms of video consumption, from linear to on-demand, and from traditional TV platforms to online and mobile.”

Google has paid TiVo IP tribute since 2012. 

Notably, the announcement comes just a few weeks after virtual pay TV service YouTube TV suddenly returned to the TiVo Stream 4K platform after a four-month absence due to what were described as technical issues. 

Xperi reported IP licensing revenue of $98 million in the first quarter. “Media IP” was up 30% during the January-March period, with recent licensing renewals secured with Comcast, Cox Communications, Sony and TCL. 

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 and its new parent company, Xperi Holdings, have renewed two more patents, inking intellectual property licensing extensions with U.K. telecom Vodafone and Korean consumer-electronics giant Sharp. 

Since TiVo settled its four-year IP battle with Comcast in November, the company has also struck deals with Cox Communications, TCL and Sony. 

Vodafone, which operates video services across Europe and parts of Africa, providing more than 22 million customers with TV/video, will continue to have access to TiVo products including content discovery, conversational voice and insight data analytics.  

“With this extension of TiVo’s services, Vodafone is maintaining its service offerings and keeping audiences engaged in the hugely competitive entertainment landscape,” Matt Milne, chief revenue officer for Xperi, said in a statement. 

Under its multiyear exemption, Sharp will use TiVo’s “G-Guide” products, including G-Guide HTML, G-Guide xD and remote schedule recording service, across compatible television and Ultra HD Blu-ray recorder products in the Japanese market. This includes the latest Aquos-branded 8K TVs.

Xperi, which controls more than 10,000 patents and patent applications, said during its third-quarter earnings call that it expects its IP licensing business to generate around $350 million in revenue in 2021. 

Xperi reports fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 23.

TiVo continues to assemble the pieces to living room dominance under new corporate owner Xperi, announcing a new partnership—yes, a “strategic” one—with well-funded fraud detection and voice authentication startup Pindrop.

With Pindrop tech someday deployed wiithin the AI-driven video operating system that TiVo eventually plans to embed into smart TVs, users could be authenticated based on their voice, as opposed to punching in cumbersome usernames and passwords. 

Family members could also be differentiated by voice for the purpose of user profiles, and search and recommendation. 

Also Read: TiVo Renews Patent Deal with Xfinity X1 Licensee Cox Communications

"Contextual awareness is key when engaging users through a Natural User Interface. Beyond just understanding what was said, we want to understand the context of the situation to drive intelligent system behavior in the moment," said Jon Heim, senior director of product and conversation services at TiVo, in a statement. ”The ability to distinguish between different members of a household based on their voice is an example of this contextual awareness, enabling us to provide an unprecedented level of personalization through an experience tailored to that specific person.”

Pindrop touts itself as a leader in security for voice AI, currently delivering voice solutions to 8 of the top 10 banks in the world. Founded in 2011, the startup has attracted venture investment of more than $212 million though series D funding rounds. 

“We believe that with our state-of-the-art voice authentication technology combined with TiVo’s expertise in the OTT video space, we’ll be able to unlock new experiences for consumers across the globe… and we’re just getting started,” said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop CEO. The companies will announce the first TiVo enabled product with Pindrop's technology in the coming months.

TiVo’s Android TV-powered Stream 4K device, which represents the company’s first dipped toe into the OTT market, offers voice support through Google Assistant. However, leveraging Xperi’s position in the global smart TV OEM market, TiVo aims to evolve its Stream 4K platform into a powerful connected TV platform fueled by TiVo’s search and recommendation software. 

Smart TVs powered by Stream 4K could begin to emerge later this year. 

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. 

A little over a year ago, TiVo, one of the bigger technology brands in the video business, announced plans to separate its products business from its more litigious intellectual property operation.

But very suddenly, former CEO Dan Shull pivoted, leading the company into a $3 billion merger with Xperi, a technology better known for things like car audio.

B+C senior content producer, technology Daniel Frankel recently caught up with
Jon Kirchner, the executive leading the combined company, and asked him to explain the synergies and the plan behind the corporate marriage. (This interview was conducted before Xperi and Comcast on Nov. 9 said they resolved their patent litigation.)

How did the deal with TiVo come together? When Xperi and TiVo met to discuss possible partnerships in mid-2019, it quickly became clear that the best partnership would be a merger. The more we talked, the more we found that the companies complemented each other in terms of current strengths and future vision. By adding TiVo to our family of consumer brands, Xperi improves our position in entertainment and will be able to further accelerate the evolution of home entertainment toward an easier to access, more immersive experience.

What kinds of technology products does Xperi make? Xperi delivers technologies that make entertainment more entertaining and smart devices smarter. Our solutions are delivered via our brands: DTS, HD Radio, IMAX Enhanced and TiVo. We categorize our product business into three categories: Consumer Experience, Connected Car and Pay TV. Consumer Experience includes: TiVo Stream 4K and Discovery solutions, DTS audio and imaging solutions, and TiVo’s data and advertising businesses. Connected Car includes: HD Radio (digital AM-FM radio), DTS Automotive Connected Media, and DTS AutoSense, an occupant monitoring system that enables innovative safety and entertainment experiences in the car. Pay TV includes: classic TiVo guides, TiVo DVR and IPTV solutions.

What is the synergy between Xperi and TiVo? There are multiple areas of synergy across Xperi brands. The most obvious, and perhaps most immediately actionable, is combining Xperi’s immersive entertainment tech (DTS and IMAX Enhanced) with TiVo’s world-class innovations that help consumers find, watch and enjoy the entertainment they love. Another compelling opportunity is in the vehicle where Xperi can combine our DTS and HD Radio technologies with TiVo’s world-class metadata offering to deliver a fantastic connected media solution. The team is focused on making these combinations happen. I cannot wait to show the world what we have in development.

What is the opportunity for Xperi in the video streaming market now that it owns TiVo? The streaming market is huge and growing quickly. We can see in TiVo’s data that viewing hours are up significantly over the last six months. Streaming has been gaining share for years. The pandemic accelerated this trend towards streaming entertainment at home. The more time consumers spend with streaming devices, the more demanding they become for easy access and high quality. TiVo is well-positioned. I believe TiVo has created the best streaming product in the market with TiVo Stream 4K. The TiVo Stream 4K content-first interface incorporates TiVo’s best thinking gained from decades of experience helping consumers find, watch and enjoy content they love, plus the best of Android TV. There are opportunities for DTS and IMAX Enhanced in streaming as well. Consumers are looking for high-quality experiences. DTS and IMAX Enhanced are both premium entertainment brands that consumers trust and desire.

Can you discuss your patent dispute with Comcast?  Xperi will not comment on ongoing litigation. When customers use our innovations or create their own solutions based on our innovations without a commercial relationship in place with Xperi, we work to negotiate a fair agreement. When we cannot come to an agreement regarding the value of our innovations in others’ products, we ask the courts to judge what’s fair and appropriate. 

Bonus Five

What shows are you binge-watching right now? I am not really a binge-watcher. When I do make the time to sit back and enjoy, I’m probably watching a movie or live sports.

 What streaming services do you subscribe to? I subscribe to all the leading streaming services. I also have connected with and occasionally use free AVOD services like Pluto TV, Tubi and IMDb TV.

What do you use to stream video? We have multiple setups at home but since the May product launch, I’ve been spending a lot of time with TiVo Stream 4K.

Which technology that you use every day do you like the best? Probably Zoom. 

How many times have you left the house this week? I try and get outside for a while every day. We’re fortunate to have great weather in Southern California which makes it easy.

More than four years after the court battle over IP began, but just months after the plaintiff was purchased by a larger intellectual property company, TiVo has finally settled its patent battle with Comcast. 

“I don’t think we necessarily did anything different,” said Samir Armaly, president of IP licensing for Xperi, the company that purchased TiVo for $3 billion earlier this year. 

In June, though, Xperi replaced the TiVo IP litigation team, led by Arvin Patel, with a group of lawyers led by Armaly, who has been with Xperi on and off since 1995. 

Comcast had resisted paying TiVo tribute for technologies used in its X1 video platform for several years, arguing that it had developed most X1 tech with its own engineering resources.

TiVo, which started trolling the IP licensing business in 2016 following
its $1.1 billion merger with Rovi, sought a kind of war of attrition with Comcast, suing it over as many patents as it could in as many venues it was able to. 

The hope was that Comcast would have to ditch so many X1 features in order to avoid paying TiVo license fees that it would eventually settle. 

In the end, Xperi Holdings, a company with a market capitalization of just over $1.8 billion, had waited out Comcast, with a market cap exceeding $218 billion. 

So what finally brought Comcast to the table? 

Armaly wouldn’t speak to what changed Comcast’s position. And Comcast deferred to the joint statement on the deal — in which both sides said they were pleased with the outcome — as its only comment. But Armaly did speculate that the merger with Xperi, which created a larger IP licensing company, might have improved TiVo’s leverage. 

The merger, he added, also clarified TiVo’s market position, which had been previously in flux with the pre-merger management looking to split the IP licensing and products operations. 

Armaly conceded that the fight wasn’t cheap. Before the merger, TiVo routinely broke out its Comcast litigation costs during its earnings reports. 

“Certainly, this was something that took a lot of mindshare and effort,” he said. “Freeing that up is going to have a lot of benefits, not only on the expense side. And not only that, it was a very public dispute.”

Comcast Deal Was Crucial

Armaly reiterated the existential nature of Comcast not paying royalties. Xperi couldn’t keep demanding licensing fees from other pay TV operators if the biggest fish the pond wasn’t capitulating, he said.

With Comcast in hand, “U.S. pay TV is largely resolved,” Armaly added. 

The focus now will be going after international pay TV companies who Xperi says are also using TiVo technologies in their set-top boxes. 

Specifically, he cited Canada as the top target. Notably, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Vidéotron all license X1 technology from Comcast. 

“Canada is certainly an opportunity that we’re excited to have,” Armaly said.

More than four years after the IP court battle began, but just months after the plaintiff was purchased by a larger intellectual property company, TiVo has finally settled its patent battle with Comcast. 

“I don’t think we necessarily did anything different,” said Samir Armaly, president of IP licensing for Xperi, the company that purchased TiVo for $3 billion earlier this year. 

Also read: Comcast and TiVo Reach Agreement, End 4-Year Patent Fight

In June, Xperi replaced the TiVo IP litigation team, led by Arvin Patel, with a group of lawyers led by Armaly, who has been with Xperi on and off since 1995. 

Comcast had resisted paying TiVo tribute for technologies used in its X1 video platform since before the Trump Administration began, arguing that it had developed most X1 tech with its own engineering resources

TiVo, which started trolling the IP licensing business in 2016 following its $1.1 billion merger with Rovi Corp., sought a kind of war of attrition with Comcast, suing it over as many patents as it could, in as many venues it was able to. 

The hope was that Comcast would have to ditch so many X1 features in order to avoid paying TiVo license fees, it would eventually settle. 

In the end, Xperi Holdings Corp., a company with a market capitalization of just over $1.8 billion, was waiting out Comcast, with a market capitalization exceeding $218 billion. 

So what finally brought Comcast to the table? 

Armaly wouldn’t speak to what changed Comcast’s position. And Comcast deferred to the joint statement on the deal as its only comment. But Armaly did speculate that the merger with Xperi, which created a larger IP licensing company, might have improved TiVo’s leverage. 

The merger, he added, also clarified TiVo’s market position, which had been previously influx, with the pre-merger management looking to split the IP licensing and products operations. 

Armaly conceded that the fight wasn’t cheap—TiVo routinely broke out its Comcast litigation costs during its earnings reports, reporting millions of dollars in expenses each quarter, prior to the Xperi marriage. 

“Certainly, this was something that took a lot of mindshare and effort,” he said. “Freeing that up going to have a lot of benefits, not only on the expense side. And not only that, it was a very public dispute.”

Armaly reiterate the existential nature of having Comcast not pay royalties—Xperi couldn’t keep demanding licensing fees from other pay TV operators if the biggest fish the pond wasn’t capitulating, he said.

With Comcast in hand, “U.S. pay TV is largely resolved,” Armaly added. 

The focus now will be going after international pay TV companies who Xperi says are also using TiVo technologies in their set-top boxes. 

Specifically, he cited Canada as the top target. Notably, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Videotron all license X1 technology from Comcast. 

“Canada is certainly an opportunity that we’re excited to have,” Aramaly said. 

Four years of disruption and chaos are finally over!

We’re talking about the long-running patent litigation battle between Comcast and TiVo, of course. On Monday, the pair finally reached agreement on a new, 15-year IP licensing pact, according to a press release jointly issued by Comcast and new TiVo parent company Xperi Holdings.

Xperi said that the agreement terms are “consistent with TiVo’s well-established licensing program for the pay TV market.

“The agreement provides for an initial payment upon execution and ongoing payments through the remainder of the agreement,” the joint press release added.

The deal is retroactive to 2016 and runs through 2031. 

“We are very pleased to conclude this agreement with Comcast, one of the world’s leading media and technology companies that is widely recognized for its innovative products and solutions,” said Samir Armaly, president, IP licensing of Xperi. “The agreement illustrates our ability to execute key renewals with our largest customers as the video market continues to experience significant technological and business evolution.”

Added Peter Kiriacoulacos, executive VP and chief procurement officer of Comcast: “This deal provides us with a reasonable licensing solution for the company’s comprehensive patent portfolio while putting the litigation behind us. We’re looking forward to a mutually successful relationship in the years to come as we continue to bring our customers the best entertainment experiences.”

TiVo fired the first legal volleys against Comcast back in 2016, shortly after the erstwhile maker of DVRs we used to call TiVo entered a $1.1 billion merger with patent giant Rovi Corp. and became the more sinister IP presence we recognize today. 

With Comcast unwilling to pay for technologies tied to its X1 video platform that it said it developed itself, TiVo's strategy became a kind of war of attrition--sue over as many patents as possible, in as many venues as possible, and force Comcast to negotiate. 

For TiVo, the expensive legal battle was existential--its ability to keep demanding tribute from other pay TV companies, and the technology vendors who serve them, would be undermined if Comcast weren't eventually brought to heel. 

Ultimately, settlement came under new management, with Xperi closing on its $3 billion purchase of TiVo earlier this year and replacing the company's litigation team with with its own IP lawyers. 

We're still waiting to talk to Xperi's barristers to find out how this deal got done. We've got a shout out to the Comcast reps, as well. 

Developing...

TiVo has introduced a new API-based metadata solution for its pay TV operator  and consumer electronics customers. And Finnish telco Elisa appears to be the first client to deploy it. 

The software tool, called Deep Discovery, is listed as an option within TiVo’s Metadata Solutions portfolio and is designed, of course, to make the end-user experience for searching for something to watch easier.

According to TiVo, Deep Discovery “allows TV and video providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and new media companies to better maximize the value of their catalogs and drive conversion, engagement and loyalty.”

With Deep Discovery, client users can build recommendations around “topics,” surfacing granular details about movies and shows to “form connections to special interest.”

Popularity scoring and also be implemented, linking older titles to trending content, or taking advantage of social and cultural topics to add timelines. 

Weighted keywords, meanwhile, “provide quantitative and qualitative insights into content relationships,” TiVo said. 

And programmers can also play with “mood,” “tone,” “theme” and “time period” to “create delightfully unexpected results.”

Now owned by Xperi Holdings Corp. after a $3 billion merger earlier this year, TiVo is emphasizing search and discovery across both its business-to-business and business-to-consumer product lines. 

"In a content landscape with more options than ever, advanced personalization and relevance are fundamental for products and services as consumers increasingly want to interact with brands that know what they want, before they even search for it," said Chris Ambrozic, VP of discovery products for Xperi. "Deep Discovery harnesses the power of AI and machine learning to deliver more relevant and personalized recommendations for service providers like Elisa.”

Added Magnus Pettersson, development director at Elisa: ”We’re deepening our relationship with TiVo to make it easier for our customers to discover great content. This new long-term agreement will benefit our customers immediately as we roll out TiVo’s API based solution. TiVo’s ambition and commitment to providing new and innovative metadata products that embrace machine learning and AI bring the opportunity to make the user experience of our IPTV  and OTT services even better than before."

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. 

Leave TiVo’s name out of it.

That seems to be the legal strategy going forward, as Xperi Holding Corp. moves forward with a sprawling patent licensing dispute with Comcast following its $3 billion takeover of TiVo. 

On Wednesday, Xperi claimed victory, announcing that Administrative Law Judge MaryJoan McNamara of the International Trade Commission had recommended the issuance of limited exclusion and cease-and-desist orders against Comcast related to two technology patents. Xperi says these patents are being infringed upon by the cable operator’s X1 video platform. 

Also read: Ex-TiVo Lawyer Patel Joins ‘Ultimate Patent Troll’

The patents, according to Xperi, “cover innovations generally relating to multi-room DVR and communication between multiple set-top boxes using MoCA technology.”

It’s only the latest turn of the screw in a case that involves dozens of patents and many different lawsuits, disputed in a number of legal venues. Last week, for example, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board—a venue that has generally sided with Comcast in the four-year-old dispute—invalidated eight of the patents Xperi is litigating over. 

So how important are these latest rulings? Tough to say, because the long-running battle has gotten so complicated. Perhaps the most interesting thing that came out of Xperi's announcement today was what wasn't in it: TiVo's brand name. 

The News Is in the Nomenclature

Xperi, which gave TiVo’s lead patent litigator, Arvin Patel, and his team golden parachutes after the merger, is taking over the fight. The TiVo band name will now be exclusive to Xperi's video products business. This is probably for the best: it’s difficult to sell pay TV operators and other clients advanced video technologies while simultaneously shaking them down for patent licensing fees. 

The legal strategy seems the same: Xperi is now championing a legal game plan established by TiVo several years ago against Comcast, whose lack of participation in the TiVo/Xperi patent licensing business represents an existential threat to it. In its legal numbers game, Xperi hopes that at least a few of the patents it disputes will be winners, forcing Comcast to the bargaining table. 

But in its announcement Wednesday, Xperi kept referring to the “Rovi patents.” It mentioned TiVo’s name only once, in the “background” section of the press release, explaining how Xperi Holdings amassed 11,000 technology patents. (As The Dude might say, this case is complicated: Four years before Xperi bought TiVo, the latter merged with Rovi Corp. in a $1.1 billion deal that created a collection of 6,000 patents.)

“We are pleased with this decision, which is now our third favorable decision at the ITC against Comcast,” said Samir Armaly, Xperi’s president of IP licensing, in a statement. “While the decision represents a positive and key milestone in our litigation, our ultimate goal remains to ensure that we receive fair value for our innovations and that we reach a mutually acceptable agreement with Comcast to allow the ongoing use of Rovi patented technology, just as we have done broadly with the other major U.S. pay TV providers. Notably, even while being in litigation over the past few years, our IP business has continued to successfully license, renew or extend licensing agreements across the industry.”

Arvin Patel, the former chief IP litigator for TiVo, who was recently golden parachuted following the company’s $1.1 billion merger with Xperi, has re-emerged in a new role for Intellectual Ventures, a company that controls more than 30,000 technology patents and which is often referred to as the most notorious “patent troll” in the technology business. 

According to an announcement released by the Bellevue, Wash.-based technology company, which was founded in 2000 by two former Microsoft engineers, Patel will become Intellectual Venture’s  chief operating officer for its Invention Investment Fund (IIF). “Patel will lead commercialization strategy and execution, business development, and partnerships across the fund's vast patent portfolio,” the company said. 

Also read: TiVo’s Top Patent Litigator, Arvin Patel, Out Following $1.1B Xperi Merger

Patel served as executive VP and chief intellectual property officer for TiVo, overseeing an intellectual property business that generated $400 million annually on the strength of around 6,000 patents, Intellectual Ventures said. 

Patel’s most high-profile effort at TiVo was overseeing its sprawling patent battle with Comcast, a court battle Xperi management said it intends to sustain. 

"Arvin is a seasoned and respected thought leader with decades of experience in technology, intellectual property, and public policy," said Nathan Myhrvold, founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures, in a statement. "His deep IP expertise strengthens our mission to support a robust ecosystem where impactful invention can thrive." 

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a Comcast appeal in the cable company’s sprawling four-year patent infringement battle with TiVo/Xperi. 

According to Bloomberg Law, the high court declined to review Comcast’s appeal of a March federal court ruling, which in turn, had upheld an earlier ban issued by the International Trade Commission (ITC) on Comcast X1 set-tops that were determined to have infringed on two TiVo patents. 

Also read: TiVo Claims Appeals Court Win Against Comcast

The patents pertaining to this most recent SCOTUS ruling—one of which deals with setting remote DVR recording via smart phones—have expired. But Comcast’s appeal was focused on the process. The ITC ruling banned the importation of CommScope and Technicolor set-tops that allegedly infringe on TiVo patents. Comcast is arguing that its set-tops don’t actually infringe on patents until they’re connected in subscriber homes. 

Comcast is predicting that TiVo will win future ITC rulings over other patents. 

Also read: TiVo’s New Holding Company: Merger Will Have ‘No Impact’ on Comcast Litigation

TiVo, which inherited the disputed patents when it merged with Rovi Corp. in 2015, has been battling Comcast in multiple legal jurisdictions, over dozens of patents, since 2016 in an effort to force the No. 1 U.S. pay TV operator to resume paying it technology licensing fees. 

Despite the ongoing legal costs, TiVo believes Comcast’s holdout, which began in March 2016, is an existential threat to its intellectual property business. TiVo’s expressed legal strategy has been to battle Comcast over as many patents as possible, winning as many fights as is necessary to make the operator settle. 

TiVo Corp. was just acquired by technology company Xperi in a $1.1 billion merger, and much of the TiVo corporate counsel that has led the legal fight against Comcast, including chief intellectual property officer Arvin Patel, have been given golden parachutes. 

But the newly combined Xperi Holdings, which will operate a TiVo-branded technology products business separately from an IP operation that controls 11,000 patents, plans to keep battling Comcast in court. 

“There will be no impact,” an Xperi rep said in a terse one-sentence statement, when asked earlier this month by Next TV how the merge might affect Xperi’s ongoing legal strategy. 

Even though TiVo’s top patent litigators have exited the company following its $1.1 billion merger with Xperi, the combined unit will continue its legal battle with Comcast, a rep for Xperi Holdings told Next TV. 

“There will be no impact,” the rep said in a terse one-sentence statement, responding to an email asking how the departures of TiVo’s general counsel and chief compliance officer, Pamela Sergeeff, and its chief intellectual property officer, Arvin Patel, will affect the ongoing patent dispute with Comcast.

Also read: TiVo’s Top Patent Litigator, Arvin Patel, Out Following $1.1B Xperi Merger

Sergeef and Patel’s departures were revealed last week in SEC filings detailing their severance packages. 

The newly combined company, under the direction of Xperi Holdings, controls 11,000 patents, many of them originating from Rovi Corp., the company TiVo merged with in 2016. 

It was also back in 2016 that the resulting TiVo Corp. began battling Comcast to pay patent royalties tied to the cable operator’s X1 platform. 

Patel had led TiVo’s litigation against Comcast, which spanned multiple venues and lawsuits. In TiVo quarterly earnings reports, former CEO Dave Shull regularly updated investors on the progress of the Comcast litigation, specifying it as a high priority for the company. 

Xperi Holdings has not revealed who will run the legal team facing Comcast now. 

TiVo’s general counsel and chief compliance officer, Pamela Sergeeff, and its chief intellectual property officer, Arvin Patel, will not be part of the company following the closure of its merger with Xperi, SEC filings reveal.

The merger of TiVo Corp. and Xperi Corp. closed earlier this week, creating one of the largest patent licensing business, with more than 11,000 patents and patent applications, falling under the Xperi brand.

As noted by this Bloomberg Law report, Xperi chief legal officer Paul Davis remains on the management team. But TiVo’s top corporate legal counsel are being bought out. Patel—who has spearheaded TiVo’s well-publicized and ongoing patent dispute with Comcast, is receiving a $1.8 million golden parachute, according to the filings $450,000 of it in cash.

Also read: TiVo Trumpets ITC’s Final Ruling—Comcast Violated Patent on Search Highlight Feature

We sent a note to Xperi Holdings reps today to try to find out how the departure of TiVo’s top legal personnel might impact the litigation with Comcast, which has been routinely mentioned as a high priority by TiVo, despite the substantial cost to maintain it. They’ve yet to respond.

Visit Next TV to read more stories like this one. 

It’s notable that prior to the announcement of the $1.1 billion deal, TiVo was looking to separate its products business, which makes things like the new TiVo Stream 4K OTT dongle, from the intellectual property business formed when it merged with Rovi Corp. five years ago.

Much of the logic came from the fact that TiVo was trying to sell products to a market that it was also trying to, in some cases, enforce patent licensing upon. And that hasn't always been easy to do.

In early 2017, for example, as its dispute with TiVo/Rovi ramped up, Comcast replaced TiVo with Gracenote as its metadata vendor.

TiVo viewed separating the patent licensing business as a priority. And now that operation will function under the Xperi brand name.  

TiVo’s general counsel and chief compliance officer, Pamela Sergeeff, and its chief intellectual property officer, Arvin Patel, will not be part of the company following the closure of its merger with Xperi, SEC filings reveal.  

The merger of TiVo Corp. and Xperi Corp. closed earlier this week, creating one of the largest patent licensing business, with more than 11,000 patents and patent applications, falling under the Xperi brand. 

As noted by this Bloomberg Law report, Xperi chief legal officer Paul Davis remains on the management team. But TiVo’s top corporate legal counsel are being bought out. Patel—who has spearheaded TiVo’s well-publicized and ongoing patent dispute with Comcast, is receiving a $1.8 million golden parachute, according to the filings $450,000 of it in cash. 

Also read: TiVo Trumpets ITC’s Final Ruling—Comcast Violated Patent on Search Highlight Feature

We sent a note to Xperi Holdings reps today to try to find out how the departure of TiVo’s top legal personnel might impact the litigation with Comcast, which has been routinely mentioned as a high priority by TiVo, despite the substantial cost to maintain it. They’ve yet to respond.

It’s notable that prior to the announcement of the $1.1 billion deal, TiVo was looking to separate its products business, which makes things like the new TiVo Stream 4K OTT dongle, from the intellectual property business formed when it merged with Rovi Corp. five years ago. 

Much of the logic came from the fact that TiVo was trying to sell products to a market that it was also trying to, in some cases, enforce patent licensing upon. And that hasn't always been easy to do.

In early 2017, for example, as its dispute with TiVo/Rovi ramped up, Comcast replaced TiVo with Gracenote as its metadata vendor. 

TiVo viewed separating the patent licensing business as a priority. And now that operation will function under the Xperi brand name.

Xperi Corp. and TiVo Corp. have completed their merger, calling the result “a unique digital entertainment technology platform and one of the industry’s largest and most diverse intellectual property licensing platforms.”

Xperi is the parent of, among other things, HD Radio and of the hybrid radio platform DTS Connected Radio. Its brands also include DTS, IMAX Enhanced, Invensas and Perceive.

Xperi Holding Corp. is the name of the ongoing entity; shares will continue to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol XPER. TiVo common stock previously traded under the symbol TIVO but is no longer listed for trading.

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

“In a time when consumers want personalized and seamless access to entertainment anywhere, anytime and on any device, the combined company will offer consumers a digital entertainment platform featuring an end-to-end entertainment experience, from choice to consumption,” the company stated in its announcement.

Licensing of intellectual property is a big part of what it does. “With a shared track record of creating value through intellectual property licensing, the combined IP portfolio spans more than 11,000 patents and applications, with recurring subscriber-based IP revenue providing important stability and diversification for the business,” it stated.

Jon Kirchner is CEO of Xperi. “With this combination, we are better positioned to transform the entertainment experience across the home, auto and mobile markets with smarter technologies that enable extraordinary experiences,” he said in the statement.

In a followup email to trade media, an Xperi representative wrote that the merger brings TiVo’s metadata platform to Xperi’s hybrid radio platform. “The solutions this merger is poised to bring to broadcasters, automakers and their consumers, take radio and the digital dashboard to a completely new level of discovery and engagement, offering drivers a safe, efficient, more personalized way to discover radio content, all presented with the text/image richness they demand in a digital platform,” she wrote. “Radio broadcasters retain control of content, with increased engagement and analytical insights, and automakers have access to a turnkey global solution that is secure and will be supported around the world.”

This story was originally published in Next TV sibling publication Radio World. 

TiVo has abandoned an earlier stated plan to split its product and IP licensing business, and instead will enter a $3 billion merger with San Jose technology company Xperi. 

Xperi, which makes advanced circuitry and chip solutions for audio, imaging and computers, will maintain the name of the combined company. It will continue to use the TiVo brand for TiVo advanced video solutions, entertainment metadata and IP licensing. 

Xperi changed its name from Tessera Holding in February 2017. It’s biggest customer is Samsung Electronics, but it also does business with LG, Panasonic, Sony, Microsoft and China’s Huawei. 

Jon Kirchner, CEO of Xperi, will continue his role with the combined company, as will Xperi CFO Robert Anderson. TiVo CEO Dave Shull, who joined TiVo in May to lead the split of product and licensing, will transition to strategic advisor. 

"With Xperi's annual licensing of more than 100 million connected TV units, and complementary relationships with major content providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, and automotive OEMs, our combined company will transform the home, car, and mobile entertainment experience for the consumer," Shull said in a statement.  

“This landmark combination brings together two highly complementary companies poised to set the industry standard for user experiences across the digital value chain,” added Kirchner.

The combined company will have one of the biggest IP licensing operations in the world, boasting more than 10,000 patents. 

TiVo has abandoned an earlier stated plan to split its product and IP licensing business, and instead will enter a $3 billion merger with San Jose technology company Xperi.

Xperi, which makes advanced circuitry and chip solutions for audio, imaging and computers, will maintain the name of the combined company. It will continue to use the TiVo brand for TiVo advanced video solutions, entertainment metadata and IP licensing.

Xperi changed its name from Tessera Holding in February 2017. Its biggest customer is Samsung Electronics, but it also does business with LG, Panasonic, Sony, Microsoft and China’s Huawei.

Related: Tivo Exiting the Box-Making Business

Jon Kirchner, CEO of Xperi, will continue his role with the combined company, as will Xperi CFO Robert Anderson. TiVo CEO Dave Shull, who joined TiVo in May to lead the split of product and licensing, will transition to strategic adviser.

"With Xperi's annual licensing of more than 100 million connected TV units, and complementary relationships with major content providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, and automotive OEMs, our combined company will transform the home, car, and mobile entertainment experience for the consumer," Shull said in a statement.

“This landmark combination brings together two highly complementary companies poised to set the industry standard for user experiences across the digital value chain,” added Kirchner.

The combined company will have one of the biggest IP licensing operations in the world, boasting more than 10,000 patents.