LONDON, UK — A quarter of a century after TiVo launched the Digital Video Recorder (DVR), the company, now owned by Xperi, is developing new consumer touchpoints to gather valuable audience data.

Speaking with me at The Future of TV Advertising Global 2023, presented by Index Exchange, Fariba Zamaniyan, VP, Advanced Media & Advertising, TiVo, explained how TiVo is fuelling new TV currencies.

Next year, TiVo will get its own TV sets, followed by a connected car odyssey.

Seizing the Power of Viewership Data

“We are very proud of our legacy and history, but it’s not who we are today,” says Fariba Zamaniyan, VP of Advanced Media and Advertising.

TiVo goes on providing TV show metadata – and more than that, too.

Currently, TiVo captures second-by-second session event level data from set-top boxes connected within homes, including cable providers and over-the-air antenna connections.

And Zamaniyan is keen to say that data is helping fuel the new wave of alternative TV currency systems – Vizio, comScore, and iSpot.

“They haven’t been able to build their currencies if they didn’t have access to viewership data,” Zamaniyan notes.

Venturing into Europe and the Future of Smart TVs

To gather that data, TiVo needs eyes on viewers’ behavior.

Beyond its traditional DVR, the company offers TiVo OS, which is making a play to be selected as operating system for streaming TV devices and smart TVs – competing with the likes of Roku, but allowing OEMs to brand the experience.

“Our first (partner) is Vestel, which manufactures over a hundred different brands of television sets – most notable, Hitachi, Panasonic, JVC,” says. “And we recently announced Sharp, which is a global contract, which is going to include EMEA as well as the US.

“So those are smart TVs that we’re going to be launching in Europe starting in 2024.”

TV Hardware To Capture More Data

The arrival of TiVo OS on European smart TVs “will provide the capability for TiVo to replicate model that we have built in the US which serves as an independent provider of ACR data”, Zamaniyan says.

“We will be able to provide and serve as an independent provider of viewership as well as ad impression delivery starting with linear broadcast.”

Zamaniyan is positioning TiVo OS as being able to help provide additional viewing data to European TV measurement agencies.

“In the UK, BARB … has done fantastic job building a panel and infusing it with big data sets such as set top box,” she says. “By having an a ACR data set that’s not behind a walled garden, TiVo is well poised to fill a need gap in this market as well as others in the globe.”

From Set-Top Box To Car Seat

TiVo’s ambitions don’t end in the living room. Xperi, which already had a DTS in-car audio entertainment system, in 2023 launched an in-car video content system powered by TiVo.

It offers “linear and on-demand streaming services, as well as country-specific channels that feature news, movies and media libraries”.

The company has partnered with BMW to offer “DTS Auto Stage Video Platform” in its 4 series cars. Yahoo is amongst those to say it will offer “snackable” video through the channel.

“It’s not just about entertainment enablement in a driverless future,” Zamaniyan says. “It’s actually enabled today with video screens in the passenger seat as well as in the rear.

“It’s a very exciting time to be thinking of the future.”

You’re watching Beet.TV coverage of The Future of TV Advertising Global 2023, presented by Index Exchange. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.

By Robert Andrews on @robertandrews