A handful of electronics retailers in the United States have started selling a model of Sharp TV that is powered by the new TiVo streaming operating system, The Desk has learned.
The 55-inch Sharp QLED Aquos TV powered by TiVo OS is available at a retail price of $300 from P.C. Richard & Son, ABC Warehouse, Brands Mart USA and Electronic Express. The TV offers support for ultra-high definition (UHD/4K) video along with Dolby Atmos audio, with a 60 Hertz (Hz) refresh rate and dual 12-watt speakers for a total sound output of 24 watts.
It is the first smart TV powered by TiVo OS to be offered to shoppers in the United States. A spokesperson for Xperi, the parent company of TiVo, said the price point was intended to ensure that its smart TVs were “attainable for the everyday entertainment seeker.”
TiVo OS is relatively new, with smart TVs powered by the operating system available mainly in Europe for the past few years. It enters a crowded market in the United States, where smart TVs and streaming devices made by Roku and Amazon dominate the domestic connected TV industry.
But executives at Xperi are bullish on the future of TiVo OS-powered smart TVs, with CEO Jon Kirchner telling investors last month that the company has received good feedback from its retail partners and consumers where the smart TVs are available in Europe.
The TVs are part of a broader platform, called TiVo One, which includes TiVo OS-powered smart TVs, cable set-top boxes and automotive solutions. Taken together, Xperi believes TiVo One will not only give consumers a seamless way to engage with entertainment and information across Internet-connected products at home and in the car, but will be able to tape into the lucrative digital advertising market, especially stateside.
Smart TVs powered by TiVo OS aim to differentiate themselves by engaging consumers with the familiar TiVo content recommendation and personalization engine — the same technology that made the company’s line-up of digital video recorders (DVRs) stand out from the competition in the early 2000s. Xperi has worked diligently to bring TiVo into the streaming era, franchising lessons learned from its TiVo-branded, Android TV-powered dongle and incorporating them into TiVo OS and TiVo One.
By the end of the year, Xperi hopes to have 5 million TiVo One users across Europe and North America, with the platform’s average revenue per user (ARPU) clocking in around $10. Much of that will be spurred by TiVo One’s advertising platform, which will allow brand marketers to launch campaigns across in-home and in-car products powered by TiVo One.
That only happens if customers actively purchase products that use TiVo One, something that could be challenging given the dominance of other players in the U.S. — but Xperi believes it has a substantial opportunity to win in the market, and the company is taking its shot.
