• March 16, 2005

In a deal that ensures the TiVo brand will continue as a dominant force in the digital video recorder marketplace, the company Tuesday announced an eight-year agreement to begin supplying customized DVRs to Comcast Corp.'s cable TV subscribers. The deal is the first distribution deal for TiVo with a major cable operator - Comcast is the nation's largest - and comes at a time when questions concerning TiVo's distribution agreement with DirecTV - a major driver of its growth - is in question, as parent News Corp. indicates it may convert to its own, proprietary DVR system. Comcast, which has 21.5 million subscribers, said it expects to begin marketing a TiVo-branded DVR beginning in mid-2006. The company said the TiVo software would e adapted to operate on Comcast's existing DVR platform, and that it would enable TiVo to serve Comcast subscribers interactive TV ads appearing in the TiVo menu screen. -- J.M.