TVNZ rival coy about TiVo

Hybrid chief Robbee Minicola says TiVo users will need broadband links. Photo / Supplied

TVNZ's entry into the personal video recorder market could be partially railroaded - or made more expensive - by competitor MediaWorks, which has yet to agree to supply vital programming information to the state broadcaster's new TiVo platform.

TVNZ confirmed last week it was spending A$8 million ($9.89 million) to buy a one-third stake in Hybrid Television Services, an Australian business controlled by Seven Media Group which is the exclusive licensee for TiVo in Australasia.

The state broadcaster's splurge raised eyebrows, given it is in the midst of a cost-cutting drive to save $25 million, but chief executive Rick Ellis said the TiVo stake was a way for the business to capitalise on the growth in demand for digital and internet-delivered broadcasting.

"The broadband-connected citizen is consuming more and more video outside of just the linear context of television in the lounge," Ellis said.

TVNZ had spent some time looking at how it could both improve the television experience and build a business in the broadband environment.

"With the Government's announcement about significant new investment in broadband, we're well placed to be a content and services provider in the broadband environment.

"What the TiVo environment does is bring those two objectives together in a nice, tidy package."

TiVo began in the United States in 1997 and is now in four million American homes, making it one of the more mature and well-established personal video recorder (PVR) technologies.

The device receives all free-to-air digital TV channels and is compatible with New Zealand's Freeview HD high-definition digital broadcast service. It uses two hard drives to record and play back recorded content.

TVNZ's entry into the PVR services market opens up a new front in its war with pay TV operator Sky, which sells its own high-definition PVR device, My Sky HDi, for $15 a month plus a one-off $99 installation cost.

TiVo will not be available here until late in the year and a price for the set-top box has yet to be set, although it is expected to be in line with Australia where the units cost A$699. But unlike the Sky service, TiVo has no ongoing monthly charge.

Hybrid chief executive Robbee Minicola said TiVo units would be installed only in homes with broadband links, because internet connectivity was needed to get TiVo services - including the device's seven-day electronic programming guide (EPG).

Hybrid aims to have TiVo units in 120,000 homes within five years.

Securing access to EPG data for all free-to-air channels is vital for drumming up consumer enthusiasm for TiVo. The EPG is the foundation for some of the service's more advanced features, such as its ability to automatically record all episodes of a particular programme, even if broadcast times for the series alter week-to-week.

By withholding EPG data for its TV3 and C4 channels, rival MediaWorks could partially scupper TVNZ's TiVo ambitions.

MediaWorks spokesman Roger Beaumont said TVNZ had so far not been in contact over the EPG issue.

"If they made the approach we would have a look at it and consider it, but if we were to proceed it would absolutely be on commercial terms."

Ellis said last week that he did not expect resistance from MediaWorks in terms of delivering TV3 and C4's programming data, given that it was a shareholder of Freeview and had signed up to the protocols on supplying EPG data for Freeview-compatible set-top boxes.

"I think with insight and understanding this is not going to be an issue."

Minicola said that when Hybrid Television Services launched TiVo in Australia last July, it did so having secured EPG supply agreements with all the country's free-to-air broadcasters.

"At the end of the day, TiVo is going to drive digital up-take," she said.

"Not only for the EPG, but also for other relationships around TiVo, it's in the interest of all Freeview members to work with Freeview in terms of content."

Although TVNZ hopes to convince MediaWorks that supplying EPG data to TiVo will be in the best interests of TV3 and C4, Beaumont said MediaWorks "didn't have a predetermined view one way or the other" thus far.

WHAT IS TiVo?
* A set-top box technology first introduced in the US in 1997.
* Receives all free-to-air digital TV channels and is compatible with the Freeview HD platform.
* Uses twin hard drives to record up to two channels simultaneously. Live broadcasts can be "paused".
* Broadband connectivity enables services such as on-demand viewing and shopping through TV.