TIVO Taking Tune From Magazine Editors

[dkennedy]

TIVO Taking Tune From Magazine Editors

May 22, 2006

By Tim Arango, New York Post

TiVo is partnering with several magazines, including Sports Illustrated and Star, to offer viewers virtual TV channels with content hand-picked by magazine editors.

The move is another step for TiVo in its effort to offer new features in the face of competition from other digital video recorders, or DVRs, that simply allow users to record and store programming.

In addition to Sports Illustrated and Star, the other magazines that have signed on are Vanity Fair, Billboard and Entertainment Weekly. The so-called Guru Guides will include program recommendations from the editors of the publications, and will be updated on a monthly or weekly basis depending on the magazine. The service will be free for TiVo subscribers.

"We've been putting a lot of effort into differentiating Tivo from generic DVRs," Tom Rogers, TiVo's chief executive officer, told The Post.

Among the other initatives TiVo has announced are an advertising search feature and a deal that allows users to download shows from TiVo to video iPods. Another is the launch of KidZone, which allows parents to regulate their children's TV watching habits.

For the magazines, the deal allows them to extend their brands to television.

"A lot of magazine brands have thought long and hard, 'How do we get on TV?' " said Rogers, a former magazine executive who once ran Primedia.

"I think it's a great way to extend the brand," said Bonnie Fuller, editor-in-chief of Star. "Having recommendations from our expert editorial staff available to TiVo subscribers is a unique way for us to extend our reach and brand into the powerful medium of TV."

Rogers said the company plans to add magazines to the feature, as well as other consumer brands.

[dkennedy]

TiVo's Guru Guide to help viewers sift through shows

May 21, 2006

By David Lieberman, USA Today

NEW YORK — People used to be able to get by with a TV Guide. Now it seems they need a TV concierge to help sort through all the choices.

At least that's the thinking behind the TiVo Guru Guide, a new feature that the digital video recorder (DVR) company will unveil today for many of its subscribers.

TiVo enlisted a team of critics, editors and experts to pick as many as 10 of the best programs in their interest areas for each week and update their lists at least once a month. TiVo users who share their interests can elect to have the shows recorded and have a selection ready whenever they sit down.

Star magazine chief editorial director Bonnie Fuller, for example, will suggest shows about pop culture. Other program pickers will come from Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, H2O (Hip-Hop on Demand),CNet.com and Automobile Magazine.

The Guru Guide will be available on the roughly 1.5 million TiVo units owned by direct subscribers to TiVo service. It won't be available to the 2.9 million who get TiVo via DirecTV.

TiVo says Guru creates "virtual networks" by connecting magazine sensibilities to TV. "We know a lot of magazines are trying to get into TV," says Tara Maitra, vice president of content services. "And no one has launched a network for automobile programming."

TiVo subscribers can set their units to automatically accept a guru's recording suggestions or cherry-pick.

Users initially will have to go to TiVo's website to find the recommendations —each guru has his or her own page — and schedule recordings. TiVo will send the instructions to a user's DVR via its phone or Internet connection.

TiVo will add the Guru Guide to its TV command screen within a few months, Maitra says. By year's end, the gurus will be able to add recommendations for Internet videos that will be available via broadband networks to TiVo users.

While there are no cash payments between TiVo and the gurus, the magazines like the opportunity to move beyond print. "As we evolve from being a magazine-centered company to a content company we're looking for ways to bring our brand to new platforms," says SI Digital President Jeff Price.

He says his editors will look for the week's "hidden gems" and "any range of programming that's not necessarily the big game."

Billboard Group editorial director Scott McKenzie plans to take a similar approach. He'll highlight potentially interesting musical performances on programs such as Good Morning America and Saturday Night Live, as well as musicians who occasionally are featured in prime-time shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

"There aren't too many shows that don't seek out artists," he says.

The initiative is part of TiVo's ambitious campaign to distinguish itself as a premium DVR service as it struggles to keep up with cable and satellite companies that are dominating the market with less expensive in-house DVR services that also offer fewer features.

TiVo's announcement is one of several about new services it has dribbled out in the last few weeks. On Wednesday, it will report its first-quarter earnings.