Cablevision has entered into a relationship with TiVo to distribute Spanish-language DVRs to their Mexico City customers in the first half of 2007. No bundled hardware/service pricing details or technological specifics were given. (Which units? Will TiVo have an operations center in Mexico? Will TiVo software ultimately run on hardware Cablevision provides? etc.) When I learn more, you’ll learn more…
To recap: TiVo is available in various flavors in America and in Canada, nearly obsolete in Britain, rolling out as TGC in Taiwan, hacked and unofficially supported in Australia.
ALVISO, Calif., Nov 29, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — CABLEVISION, S.A. de C.V. (CABLEVISION), Mexico’s largest digital cable operator, and TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that they have entered into an agreement to distribute the TiVo(R) DVRs and TiVo(R) Service to CABLEVISION’s subscribers throughout Mexico City.
Under the agreement, CABLEVISION will make TiVo’s DVR service available to subscribers of CABLEVISION’s digital cable service, including the first Spanish language version of the Emmy(R) award-winning TiVo user interface. The TiVo service for CABLEVISION customers is expected to include popular TiVo features like SeasonPass(TM) recordings and WishList(R) searches.
Initially, the service offered by CABLEVISION will utilize TiVo’s standalone DVR hardware platform. CABLEVISION expects to begin marketing bundles that include the TiVo DVRs and TiVo Service in the first half of 2007.
UPDATE: Based on Thomas Hawk’s coverage of TiVo’s quarterly report it sounds like Cablevision will initially resell stand-alone TiVo boxes, to be followed later by software integration similar to the Comcast and Cox arrangements in the US.
This drives me crazy. I think that Mexico should definitely get TiVo, as every human on the planet should have the right to own the best DVR. But launch in a market that doesn’t even speak the same language when they won’t even ship a thing to Canada? C’mon! They’ll have programmers translating all the menu’s and come up with new packaging, but I can’t get them to send me a wireless adapter I got with my TiVo referral points. It’s just wrong.