Rocketboom not doing it for you? TiVo has announced a partnership with Brightcove to distribute Internet video. Sounds neat, but I’m still waiting for a Hollywood feature film VOD service.
Interesting factoid: One article stated there are ~400,000 TiVo units on broadband.
Associated Press says: The deal with Brightcove Networks Inc., to be announced Wednesday, means some TiVo users will soon have not only TV shows to record, but also Internet-based videos from Brightcove’s content partners. “This is the first partnership for us to get content directly to the TV set,” said Brightcove’s founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire. Allaire said TiVo and Brightcove would pick an as-yet-undisclosed set of Web-based programs to debut in June on TiVo’s Internet-connected, Series 2 digital video recorders. The companies said the programs would be offered for free initially, but may carry advertising. The two companies later plan to provide a way for content producers using Brightcove to have their material distributed to TiVo machines. The content providers could decide to charge for the content, the companies said.
TiVo says: TiVo Inc. , the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVR), and Brightcove, an Internet TV pioneer, today announced an agreement that will enable broadband video published through Brightcove to be distributed directly to TiVo subscriber set top boxes. “TiVo has revolutionized television viewing and Brightcove is bringing about major changes in consumer viewing of broadband-delivered video,” said Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo. “Through this new partnership, the process of delivering Internet based video to TiVo users will be significantly facilitated.”
Under terms of the agreement, Brightcove and TiVo will phase in a number of content partners and new downloading capabilities for a number of possible content partners of TiVo’s going forward. The partnership will provide a method for almost any publisher of broadband video using Brightcove’s Internet TV services to distribute content to TiVo subscribers. It also opens the possibility of monetizing the distribution through advertising, subscription plans, or pay-per-view. Initially, all content will be offered for free to TiVo subscribers and may carry advertising within the content.
“TiVo has been a powerful factor increasing consumer choice and control over television viewing experiences. The Brightcove partnership will further empower consumers by allowing TiVo subscribers to find broadband video content via their TiVo or PC and send that content directly to their TiVo box where they can view it whenever they choose,” said Jeremy Allaire, founder and CEO of Brightcove. “TiVo subscribers will gain access to the largest, most powerful content platform ever offered — the Internet. If it’s on Brightcove, you’ll be able to watch it on your TV using your TiVo box.”
Broadband video content from Brightcove will be made available to any TiVo(R) Series2(TM) DVR connected to the Internet. TiVo subscribers will be able to discover this content directly in the TiVo Central content management area on the TiVo box.
(Thanks megazone!)