Looking to evolve beyond the DVR market it pioneered in the late 1990s, TiVo, Inc. and Amazon.com are prepping a new service feature, dubbed Amazon Unbox on TiVo, that will let the DVR vendors’ customers rent and purchase movies and TV shows from the popular e-commerce Web site.
While the download to rent and/or buy market is getting more crowded every day – NetFlix Inc. recently entered the space as did Walmart with Hewlett-Packard Co. – TiVo is hoping that offering the capabilities as an add-on to its large base of DVR customers will provide differentiation from competitors.
The two companies say Amazon Unbox on TiVo is currently in beta testing among a select group of TiVo subscribers and will be available soon to more than 1.5 million broadband-ready TiVo boxes. Amazon hopes to boost the service it launched in September that was first targeted at PCs and mobile devices.
Though best known for its DVR offering that pundits thought would lead to the decline of TV and movie advertisements – with customer fast-forwarding past them – recent research indicates viewers are more likely to remember ads at the beginning and end of commercial breaks.
And TiVo has been working since at least last spring to find ways to integrate new forms of advertising into its offering, working with car marker Lexus to find a home for a setup that would let viewers interact with an ad for additional information and potentially more.
Amazon said the new TiVo feature is the first service that allows for downloadable broadband video to be integrated with programming recorded from TV so the consumer can navigate all viewing options.
"The television is and will continue to be the preferred platform for watching video content, and TiVo is leading the charge in offering broadband-delivered content to the living room," said Tara Maitra, TiVo's vice president and general manager, programming. "By adding Amazon Unbox on TiVo, we are expanding the TiVoCast service to include movies, television shows and other premium content, giving TiVo subscribers access to the full range of video programming a consumer may want."
To activate the service, subscribers must log on to Amazon.com and follow a few steps to establish a link between their broadband connected TiVo Series2 or Series3 box and their Amazon account. Once the initial set up is complete, eligible movies or television shows from Amazon Unbox can be downloaded to the customer's TiVo box. After the movie has been downloaded, the title will automatically appear in the subscriber's TiVo "Now Playing" list with all of their other recorded shows.
Customers can purchase television episodes for $1.99, purchase most movies for between $9.99 and $14.99, or rent movies starting at $1.99. As an added bonus, all purchased videos are automatically stored in each customer's "Your Media Library" at Amazon.com for future access and download.
Amazon.com www.amazon.com
TiVo Inc. www.tivo.com
