Marking the start of TiVo’s first MVPD partnership in Canada, Cogeco announced Thursday that it will launch its TiVo-powered offering on Monday, Nov. 3, in Ontario, and extend it to systems serving Quebec in the spring of 2015 after they customize the interface, language and recommendations system for that market.
Cogeco’s version will offer “full Netflix integration” alongside TiVo’s unified search capabilities. The MSO’s TiVo service will also be support through the Cogeco TV app, which lets customers search and schedule recordings remotely, sideload DVR-recorded programs to smartphones and tablets, and stream live and recorded shows on mobile devices in the home. Cogeco’s app initially runs on iPads and iPhones, but the MSO expects to introduce an Android version of the app next April.
Cogeco will sell the service for C$20 per month for the first TV, and C$7 per month for each additional TV (via the TiVo Mini). Cogeco is requiring that TiVo customers subscribe to the MSO’s TV and Internet services and use a Cogeco-supplied wireless modem.
The launch comes more than three months after Cogeco announced that it had scrapped a plan to launch an alternative IPTV service and that it would instead move forward with the TiVo partnership. Atlantic Broadband, a Cogeco Cable subsidiary in the U.S., began to roll out a TiVo-powered service last fall.
The deal is TiVo’s first with a Canadian-based MVPD, and should help TiVo expand a customer base that stood at 4.80 million subscribers (937,000 TiVo-owned and 3.86 million through pay-TV partnerships) at the end of its fiscal second quarter. Cogeco has about 1.03 million video subs.
"Cogeco TiVo Service will be a game-changer in the cable market in Canada," said Louise St-Pierre, Cogeco Cable Canada president and CEO, said in a statement. "We have worked closely with TiVo to develop a platform that is customized for Canadian viewers, and we are proud to bring it to market today. We developed Cogeco TiVo Service in direct response to what our customers told us is important to them – great content, convenience, availability and ease of use. Cogeco TiVo Service delivers that, and more."
