Via trusted sources, we’ve learned that TiVo is poised to launch Cox On Demand services… nearly five years after an announced partnership that many have assumed to be dead. So while the various players dicker over the capabilities and implementation of a CableCARD successor, TiVo once again strikes a deal to build a custom solution. I’m not sure what’s in it for Cox, other than avoiding the remaining couple years of TiVo’s Time Warp patent teeth. But we clearly know the value to TiVo — the DVR pioneer has previously indicated that retail sales and retention were higher within the Comcast footprint as Xfinity On Demand rolled out. (Granted, those regions had been bolstered by additional marketing.) Giving up “free” on demand content provided by one’s cable provider is often a sticking point before “going TiVo” – and Cox represents a sizable portion of TiVo’s addressable audience as the 5th largest compatible cable operator. Trust me, a large percent of my peers with children rely on On Demand, making a TiVo a non-starter in many cases. It’s yet to be seen if the new TiVo Cox On Demand implementation retains the dated Xfinity approach or goes with a more modern HTML5 front-end. Regardless, given Cox’s continued reliance on Switched Digital Video and over aggressive copy protection, Verizon FiOS is still probably the better choice… assuming you have one.