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Xperi to start offering TiVo-powered smart TVs in North America

A TiVo exhibit at a technology conference. (Photo courtesy Xperi)
A TiVo exhibit at a technology conference. (Photo courtesy Xperi)

TiVo parent company Xperi says the company is slated to start offering a line of smart television sets powered by its TiVo streaming operating system in the United States next year.

On a conference call with investors on Wednesday, Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner said the decision to offer TiVo-powered TV sets in North America follows its launch in Europe, where Vestel and Sharp are making TV sets with the new streaming operating system.



Currently, no one has a TiVo-powered TV set in their home overseas. But Kirchner says the company hopes to have Vestel-made TiVo TVs on store shelves in Europe by the holiday shopping season.

“These initial shipments are an important first step,” Kirchner said. “However, the monetization of these TVs will build as our footprint grows and users engage with content.”



Sharp was announced as a new TiVo manufacturing partner this week, and could have TVs ready to ship by early 2024. It wasn’t immediately clear if TiVo TVs made by Sharp will also make their way stateside; in the U.S., Chinese electronics firm Hisense makes TVs under the Sharp brand.

Long known for its line of broadcast and cable television digital video recorders (DVRs), TiVo began focusing on the streaming market in early 2020 with the debut of the TiVo Stream 4K dongle. The gadget is powered by Android TV, and offers a unique TiVo app that couples content discovery with access to popular services like Netflix, Sling TV, YouTube TV, Prime Video and Disney Plus.



Xperi used the TiVo Stream 4K as an opportunity to gauge how streamers discovered and watched content, and incorporated those ideas into TiVo OS, which is offered to TV makers like Vestel and Sharp as a white-label solution for their smart TV sets.

TiVo OS includes access to more than 160 free streaming channels through a service called TiVo Plus. The service is similar to Paramount’s Pluto TV and Comcast’s Xumo Play, in that it offers linear content streams supported by advertisements.

Executives at Xperi say they expect the various TiVo streaming products, including TiVo OS, to open up additional revenue streams for the company, primarily through licensing fees charged to smart TV makers and advertisements on TiVo’s home screen and TiVo Plus channels.

“Each of these markets is expected to expand rapidly over the next several years as Internet connectivity, streaming and consumer expectations cause entertainment to be more ubiquitous and advertising dollars shift to new delivery methods,” Kirschner said.

Xperi doesn’t break out revenue from TiVo Stream and TiVo OS in its financial earnings report. On Wednesday, Xperi revealed the company brought in $126.87 million during the three-month period that ended June 30, slightly higher than the $126.2 million reported at this time last year. Its financial loss widened to $39.36 million, up from a loss of $30.98 million in 2022.

The decision to start selling TiVo-powered TVs in the United States will put the company against Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV, which hold around 80 percent of the domestic streaming TV hardware marketplace, according to data from Parks Associates. Xperi didn’t reveal how much TiVo-powered TVs will cost in the United States; the cost of a Roku or Fire TV-powered device can drop to as low as $20, while TVs with Roku and Amazon’s streaming platform built-in can be found for around $100 when they are on sale.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is a nationally-recognized, award-winning journalist who has covered the business of media, technology, radio and television for more than 11 years. He is the publisher of The Desk and contributes to Know Techie, Digital Content Next and StreamTV Insider. He previously worked for Thomson Reuters, the Walt Disney Company, McNaughton Newspapers and Tribune Broadcasting. Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn by clicking or tapping here.
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