FBR: Amazon, TiVo Deal Could Offer "a Way Through Thicket of Content License Issues"

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Financial analyst Friedman Billings Ramsey sees a potential upside for TiVo in the just-announced content deal with Amazon.com, but not enough to raise its rating on the company's stock.

The Amazon deal allows TiVo users to download content, including TV shows from CBS, Fox, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros., from the Website's Unbox service directly to their TVs via TiVo.

That, said FBR, could potentially help take broadband video from the PC/iPod space onto the TV screen by offering "a way through the thicket of content license issues" that have confined broadband TV generally to the really small screen.

The TV shows are available for $1.99 and can be stored to the TiVo box for future viewing.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.