By way of CableFAX and TiVo VP Tom Elan, we learn TiVo is once again expanding their cable operator offerings:
The other one that’s cool is a hybrid set-top box. It’s essentially combining broadband with DTA technology. By adding broadband you get all of the economic advantages of DTA and the simplicity… but then all the benefits of broadband. So we can bring Netflix down to a low-cost set-top box product. It’s a non-cable card product, so it avoids the cost and complexity of cable cards and yet you get the full power of the TiVo experience and the OTT experience combined with the operator’s linear experience.
It just so happens that we have a few friends at The Cable Show and the esteemed Alan Wolk shot the above photos at the TiVo booth, which we believe could be the referenced box. If so, this wouldn’t be the first time TiVo partnered with Evolution Digital, given a few other cable-centric offerings including the original TiVo DTA. Sadly, this sort of simple, inexpensive solution will never make it onto retail shelves until the industry, with or without the FCC’s encouragement, develops and agrees upon a CableCARD successor.