March 8, 2006

TiVo Inc. took another small step toward wireless this week, inking a deal to allow Verizon Wireless subscribers to use their wireless phone as a TiVo remote control.

The companies unveiled a downloadable BREW application that can be used to program TiVo’s digital video recording service.

TiVo Mobile will be available exclusively to Verizon Wireless subscribers for 60 days beginning this summer; TiVo is free to provide the service to other carriers after the 60-day exclusivity period.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the service is expected to cost less than $5 a month.

The service builds on TiVo’s efforts to expand video content from home set-top boxes to other platforms. Earlier this year the company launched TiVoToGo, which allows users to transfer content from traditional TV sets to PCs, DVDs and Windows Mobile-enabled mobile devices.

“This arrangement will allow the growing base of TiVo subscribers to integrate control of their TV life with the most widespread piece of consumer electronics, the wireless phone,” said Tom Rogers, TiVo’s chief executive officer.

Some critics were skeptical of the market for TiVo Mobile, however, questioning the eagerness of viewers to program the video recording service remotely.

And users with Internet-capable handsets can already use their phones to program TiVo’s service through the Web, observers noted.

Source: RCR