What’s TiVo Teasing? Pundits Ponder The Possibilities

By MCN Staff -- Multichannel News, 3/1/2010 10:30:00 AM

TiVo is promising “some very significant news” at a press conference scheduled for Tuesday evening, March 2, at the “Top of the Rock” at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.

“Inventing the DVR was just a warmup,” the invite reads.

What’s the tease about? TiVo, of course, is mum, but speculation has centered on two possibilities: new hardware or an integrated search feature.

According to Engadget, documents from Best Buy’s intranet revealed two new TiVo units: one called “Premiere HD DVR,” priced at $299, and another called “Premiere XL HD DVR,” which is THX-certified, for $499. Both have an expected ship date of March 27; Engadget didn’t have additional specs.

Another possibility: TiVo may add the ability to search Web video services from Amazon, YouTube, Netflix and others alongside TV listings, Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible told Bloomberg last week.

Quote of the Week: ‘Show Me the 22%’

At our magazines’ advanced-advertising conference in New York last week, Broadcasting & Cable’s Claire Atkinson cited a statistic to a panel of ad executives. She said an Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research survey found 78% of ANA members would like to be able to target consumers more precisely, but only 59% saw a willingness by clients to pay more for that. Who wants to tackle that mixed-message question?

“I’d like to meet the 22% of the people who said, ‘I don’t want to target better to my clients,’ ” replied WE TV executive VP of national ad sales Scott Collins, who found that stat surprising.

“They’re the dentists who didn’t believe in sugarless gum,” Visible World CEO Seth Haberman explained.

“I have a problem with the word ‘only’ 59%,” was DirecTV VP of ad sales Rich Forester’s take. “Give me 60% of the people that want to pay more, and I’m jumping up and down.”