In an effort to provide customers far smarter search capability than its cable TV service has had, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) is offering TiVo Inc. (TIVO) functionality that provides customers an expanded user interface and digital video recorder (DVR) capability.
Comcast offers current DVR customers the TiVo services for $2.95 per month, customers without DVR a package that costs around $20 a month, and as an addition to a new promotion that includes Digital Cable with HD On Demand, Showtime and DVR Service for $49.99 per month for a one-year commitment.
The DVR creator demonstrated the software program it created with Comcast, and later others, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2008. It later launched the upgrade, which enables content search across linear TV, video-on-demand and the Web, late last year in select markets.
It was first sold as a $2.95 per month add-on, but Comcast has since added the innovative offering to service packages, most recently with one that includes premium cable TV channels.
The allure of the $2.95 add-on option is twofold. First, it build high upon Comcast’s current content search and discovery functionality, enabling customers to search by actor, producer and movie title, for example, as opposed to by channel, time-of-day and title as spelled letter-by-letter otherwise.
The search functionality has also been expanded to find titles available on the web, and VoD, with the results listed on one screen, and with a HD marker where the content is offered in that format. It also allows Wish List searches, custom searches designed to find coveted content (and where it resides) even faster.
On the innovation front, DVR with TiVo enables TrickPlay, a set of features that goes beyond DVR, such as rewind, fast forward and pause, to include instant replays and quick skip to the beginning or end of the content viewed.
Upgrading to a set-top box with DVR functionality, and adding the TiVo service, could prove attractive in a crippled economy and for cost-conscious consumers looking to control their TV and entertainment costs.
It’s not clear, however, if the TiVo offering works with the DVR maker’s own widely used DVRs.
