Having transformed the media-entertainment business back in 1999 with its introduction of the digital video recorder, TiVo announced last week that it has built its last DVR. Now owned by tech company Xperi, TiVo has moved onto the business of creating multi-platform content ecosystems that can be monetized via advertising.
And its latest content deal supporting that initiative, announced Wednesday, is with independent FAST platform operator Free Live Sports, which was launched a year ago. Based on our informal hand count, Free Live Sports has more than 120 sports-themed content channels in its arsenal, including Swerve Sports, which just had its own momentum joining The Roku Channel in the UK.
Free Live Sports President Cathy Rasenberger told StreamTV Insider that her company syndicates custom bundles of channels to TVOS providers, pay TV companies and other video interests globally. TiVo is adding 45 channels from the FAST, which will be distributed across its smart TV OEM and IPTV customers in key regions, and for the first time BMW vehicles, among other. The 45 channels in the TiVo bundle, Rasenberger added, were “handpicked” to travel across what is a pretty vast and diverse set of regions within the TiVo portfolio.
Here’s a sampling of those channels, based on genre:
Extreme & Adventure: Red Bull TV, Nitro Circus, World Chase Tag, Extreme; GoPro Channel
Traditional Sports: Tennis Channel, Tennis TV, Golf Network, Cricket Gold; World Surf League
Combat Sports: PFL, GLORY, TNA Wrestling, Strongman Champions League
Motorsports: NHRA, Motorsport.tv, Speedvision
College Sports: Big 12 Studios, Pac-12 Insider
International: BeIN Sports XTRA, European League of Football
Entertainment Sports: World Poker Tour, Harlem Globetrotters, PokerGO
TiVo will distribute these channels via the TiVo OS, which backbones the smart TVs of OEM partners including Turkish manufacturer Vestel. These TiVo-powered TVs have been sold in Europe for several years. In February, Xperi execs said the TiVo OS had 2 million users in Europe. The TiVo OS came to America at the beginning of this year through a relationship with Sharp. Through its TiVo One initiative, TiVo has been selling advertising against the combined forces of the TiVo OS and the pay-TV-based TiVo IPTV business spread across North America and Latin America.
Specifically, Free Live Sports content will be delivered to smart TVs powered by the TiVo OS in Europe and North America as well as paid video services in North America and Latin America that are powered by TiVo’s IPTV devices.
At the beginning of September, Xperi reported that TiVo One was reaching 4 million MAUs across TVOS and IPTV devices.
The 45 Free Live Sports FAST channels will also be deployed into DTS AutoStage Video Service, available on newer BMW vehicles globally (model year 2023 and later), among others, and is powered by TiVo. It’s unclear as to whether the TiVo One ad sales initiative has been expanded to include the BMW in-vehicle entertainment business.
Notably, TiVo operates its own FAST service, TiVo+, which includes more than 300 “binge-worthy” channels and is distributed across TiVo’s TVOS, IPTV system and DTS AutoStage service.
Separately, Titan Operating System S.L. (Titan OS), a Barcelona-based technology, entertainment and advertising company, announced a partnership between its advertising division, Titan Ads, and TiVo. The partnership is expected to enhance advertising effectiveness across both Titan OS and TiVo OS by offering advertisers one streamlined buying route, with standardised formats, to premium connected-TV inventory.