• by Aaron Baar , June 11, 2013

When it was founded in 1997, TiVo set out to change the way people watch television, allowing them to watch programming on their calendar and their terms. In the 16 years since, not only has the way people view television changed, the consumption of content has been revolutionized. Smartphones, tablets and over-the-top services like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube have expanded both the programming and the ways to view it. Rather than get left behind, TiVo has embraced these new channels to become an aggregator of content for consumers. Tara Maitra, general manager of content and media sales, spoke with Marketing Daily about TiVo’s present and future. 

Q: How have TiVo and its product offerings changed as the viewing habits of the general public have changed?

A: TiVo first changed the way we watched television by really making it on terms of the viewer, by allowing them to record content to watch at their convenience. About five years ago, TiVo understood that we wanted to be more than just the recording of TV in the sense that there was an explosion of content being created for delivery via the Internet, and we began working on making available all content regardless of the source, really building the bridge from Web to TV. Today, you can buy a TiVo and have access to all of your linear or pay TV content from your cable operator, and all of the over-the-top content through one device. That means the user doesn’t need to switch inputs and worry about multiple remote controls and interfaces. It’s about searching and discovering content through one user experience. As a viewer, it doesn’t matter where the content is coming from -- I just want to get to what I want to watch with as few clicks as possible. 

Q: What do you mean by that?

A: As we’ve gone from 30 channels to 500 channels to 1,000 channels to millions of pieces of content that’s available when you look at what’s on Netflix and YouTube and Amazon, now I need an ability to find what I want to watch, when maybe I’m not even sure what I want to watch. What TiVo stands for today is what it stands for when it set out 10 years ago. It was the best way to experience television. Now it’s the best way to experience any video, regardless of where it’s coming from. 

Q: Has the messaging changed to educate consumers about all that availability?

A: The message has definitely evolved to make sure that TiVo is not just about being a recording device, but it is about getting any content to the TV -- and in fact, it goes beyond that to say it’s not just about the TV in your living room. We’ve got two new products on the market. We’ve got TiVo Mini, which is a whole-home solution, as well as TiVo stream, which allows consumers to move recorded or live content to a tablet in the home and then out of the home, so they can bring downloaded content for viewing. 

Q: How has the company’s mindset and approach evolved as the second- and third-screen technologies have come up?

A: For any distribution platform, not matter what part you play, we’ve always talked about it being about choice and control. And for the longest time, we focused on making sure the choices were there. Today, it’s become much more about finding that content easily, navigating the experience easily, as well as the mobility of it. TiVo has always focused on the user experience, and we continue to believe that having that best user experience is what’s going to make a difference with the consumer. 

Q: When it comes to these hubs, the user interface is key. Is that something you sell to consumers and through your partners?

A: Certainly the user experience is a point of differentiation, and the ability to have that integration is a very unique proposition that TiVo offers to the consumer. I’ll give you an example. I had missed “Downton Abbey” when it was airing live through season one and season two. In mid-season three, I realized it was something I wanted to watch. I came home one night and I put the TiVo to the test. I went through TiVo search, because I wasn’t sure which service had which season. All I did was type “Downton Abbey” and found out when it was still airing on PBS live so that I could record it; that season one was on Netflix; that season two was on Hulu, and that season three was on Amazon. That’s just one example how the TiVo user experience makes the content experience so easy. No one really wants to spend time thinking about and working hard for their television. 

Q: These new initiatives, TiVo Mini and TiVo Stream, seem to be the next generation and seem to be something anyone needs to offer in the video entertainment arena these days. Does the UI translate across those platforms?

A: One of the key efforts of our user experience team is to make sure that TiVo is a unified experience. Our designers have been very diligent to ensure the experience is consistent. When you think about things like second screen and what that experience is on the tablet, we try to keep that experience with necessary changes as a platform might dictate for usability. They key for interaction between the first screen and the second screen is having a more unified experience. We have the TiVo app with a new feature, called “What to Watch Now.” It connects the user with what’s live in six different categories [such as] your favorite channels, kids programming, sports, recorded programs, most popular and movies. The beauty of that is, even with all the content I may have recorded and what’s available OTT, I can still sit down and find out what’s on at that moment.

Q: What have you done to integrate social media into your offerings?

A: We have done some with the TiVo app, but there will certainly be more to come. The second screen allows for so much more as it relays to social -- there’s only so much you want to do on your big screen in terms of interactivity. To keep the TV user experience as clutter free as possible, a lot of that social engagement can take place on the second screen, and that’s the perfect technology to allow for that.