12.01.05

Tivo Online Services

Posted in business, media, tech at 8:59 pm by mridley

So there was a story on digg that Tivo Online Services (signup page) has been officially announced. This will allow various Internet-enabled features on broadband connected Series 2 DVRs. They’ll offer Yahoo!-powered photo sharing, weather forecasts, traffic info, etc. That’s all handy, but it’s not the bombshell. The real news is that Yahoo is also integrating Live 365 streaming audio and…wait for it…podcasts into their Online Services portfolio.

My Tivo is a Series One so I haven’t been able to sign up for the service and see how it actually works in practice. Given that it is a Tivo product, I’m sure that the interface is very clean and easy to use. I’m not sure what directories they are using or how the subscription works, but hopefully they can avoid some of the pitfalls of the iTunes Music Store podcasting experience. And hopefully the Tivo model is more open and doesn’t require a proprietary RSS format. Nonetheless, bringing podcasts out of the computer and into the living room is going to be great. It’s the return of the old time radio days, with the family gathered around the radio to listen to their favorite programs.

Of course having podcasts on Tivo is, itself, really just a prelude to the big show. It doesn’t seem to have been announced yet, but the next logical step is to support vidcasts. Once I can produce an online vidcast and have it start popping into millions of Tivo subscribers’ television sets by subscription, the world changes. Not only would that offer Tivo some very interesting revenue opportunities (we’ll host your high bandwidth vidcast files in return for allowing us to insert some advertising into them, in effect creating an online “vidcast network”, etc.) but it means some huge changes for the traditional broadcast and cable television industry.

I can’t wait to see Rocketboom showing up right underneath The Daily Show in my Tivo Now Showing list.

Time’s up, rules change. (yes, I did just quote Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Tags: Tivo, Podcasting, Vidcasting