Tivo Company

In a ground-breaking alliance with a company whose main product takes dead aim at traditional network viewing habits, NBC will today announce it is taking a multimillion-dollar stake in TiVo Inc., which markets a set-top box that allows viewers to control when and how they watch TV programs. Sunnyvale-based TiVo is one of two purveyors of a technology that diverts the TV signal to a high-capacity hard disk--similar to that found in most desktop computers--before sending it to the TV screen.

Internet entertainment site Ifilm.com said its short films will soon be distributed on TiVo Inc.'s television set-top boxes. The deal underscores the increasingly blurry line between Internet and television programming. Starting this summer, short films from Ifilm's site will be preloaded on new TiVo boxes, digital VCR-like devices that allow viewers to record and play back television programming.

TiVo Inc., maker of a digital set-top box that allows viewers to control when and how they watch television programs, on Tuesday announced $32.5 million in investments from a group of broadcast TV and cable companies. The announcement means that Sunnyvale, Calif.-based TiVo now has equity backing from all three major TV networks despite marketing a device that undermines the traditional broadcast advertising model.

Gemstar International Group Ltd., maker of VCR Plus software, said it's suing TiVo Inc. for allegedly selling a video recorder with an interactive television listing without Gemstar's permission. Pasadena-based Gemstar, whose software lets viewers record TV shows by entering a number found in program listings, is seeking an injunction against TiVo and unspecified monetary damages. Gemstar's Fremont, Calif.

After years of dismissing emerging video-on-demand technologies as so much hype, the Blockbuster video rental chain is getting at least a toehold in the business through an alliance announced Friday with personal video recorder TiVo Inc. The companies said they hope to launch later this year or in early 2001 a system in which consumers could effectively rent a list of videos electronically through TiVo systems.

TiVo Inc. will make its personal TV service available nationwide for the first time today through a set-top box manufactured by Philips Consumer Electronics. The highly anticipated service, which allows viewers to save programs for later viewing and to pause, fast forward and rewind live TV, is expected by some analysts to change the way people watch TV. Consumers can program the box to save their favorite shows.

Gemstar International Group Ltd., maker of VCR Plus software, said it's suing TiVo Inc. for allegedly selling a video recorder with an interactive television listing without Gemstar's permission. Pasadena-based Gemstar, whose software lets viewers record TV shows by entering a number found in program listings, is seeking an injunction against TiVo and unspecified monetary damages. Gemstar's Fremont, Calif.

Propelled by the introduction of broadcast digital television in the top U.S. markets last fall and the coming of digital cable systems, interactive TV is poised to move from regional experiments into living rooms across the nation this year. Products and services that allow consumers to personalize their TV experience will provide much of the buzz at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Internet entertainment site Ifilm.com said its short films will soon be distributed on TiVo Inc.'s television set-top boxes. The deal underscores the increasingly blurry line between Internet and television programming. Starting this summer, short films from Ifilm's site will be preloaded on new TiVo boxes, digital VCR-like devices that allow viewers to record and play back television programming.

LONDON -- According to TiVo, the company that produces equipment that can be used on your television to back up and replay particular moments, the five most TiVoed moments on the first full day of Olympic competition Saturday included two swimming events and two from men's gymnastics. A TiVo spokeswoman, in an email, said that swimmer Ryan Lochte's gold win when Michael Phelps finished fourth was the most TiVoed, followed by men's gymnast Jonathan Horton's fall off the pommel horse; then John Orozco's well-done pommel horse routine; Phelps' loser's interview; and when Sun Yang became the first Chinese to win an Olympic swimming event.

After years of dismissing emerging video-on-demand technologies as so much hype, the Blockbuster video rental chain is getting at least a toehold in the business through an alliance announced Friday with personal video recorder TiVo Inc. The companies said they hope to launch later this year or in early 2001 a system in which consumers could effectively rent a list of videos electronically through TiVo systems.

TiVo Inc., maker of a digital set-top box that allows viewers to control when and how they watch television programs, on Tuesday announced $32.5 million in investments from a group of broadcast TV and cable companies. The announcement means that Sunnyvale, Calif.-based TiVo now has equity backing from all three major TV networks despite marketing a device that undermines the traditional broadcast advertising model.

In a ground-breaking alliance with a company whose main product takes dead aim at traditional network viewing habits, NBC will today announce it is taking a multimillion-dollar stake in TiVo Inc., which markets a set-top box that allows viewers to control when and how they watch TV programs. Sunnyvale-based TiVo is one of two purveyors of a technology that diverts the TV signal to a high-capacity hard disk--similar to that found in most desktop computers--before sending it to the TV screen.

TiVo Inc. will make its personal TV service available nationwide for the first time today through a set-top box manufactured by Philips Consumer Electronics. The highly anticipated service, which allows viewers to save programs for later viewing and to pause, fast forward and rewind live TV, is expected by some analysts to change the way people watch TV. Consumers can program the box to save their favorite shows.

Propelled by the introduction of broadcast digital television in the top U.S. markets last fall and the coming of digital cable systems, interactive TV is poised to move from regional experiments into living rooms across the nation this year. Products and services that allow consumers to personalize their TV experience will provide much of the buzz at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

You watch TV on your terms, and sometimes you don't even watch it on an actual TV at all. And that's perfectly fine with TiVo. The company behind the digital video recording device is preparing to launch a gadget this summer that will further enable that behavior by letting users hook up their iPad and iPhone to their main TiVo device to stream and download content. That means you'll be able to watch shows recorded or in the process of being recorded from your iOS device anywhere in your home as well as be able to download certain shows you record to take with you anywhere.

THE FALL TV season officially kicked off Sunday, meaning that televisions with digital recorders can sag under the weight of even more must-see programs that undoubtedly will be recorded but never watched. Don't get me wrong -- we love this technology, so much so that TiVo, the company that pioneered it in 1999, has become a verb. No matter what kind of digital video recording system we have (and by the end of this year there will be an estimated 22.