• by Shankar Gupta , January 24, 2006

TiVo this week is wrapping up the rollout of a host of broadband services that include access to podcasts, games, music, and online movie ticketing, through the user's living room TV.

The program, which began in November, gives TiVo users who also have broadband connections the ability to access any podcast on the Web, and play the audio on their TV sets.

Jim Denney, TiVo's vice president of product marketing, said the offerings were a "good fit" for the company. "These are things that are media-oriented," he said, adding that podcasts are the type of product "that you might take with you, but you also might want to have access to these in the living room."

The podcasts are read through an RSS application designed in-house by TiVo. The podcasts are played, not recorded, so they don't use any storage space on the device hard drive, and any ads placed in the bit stream are left intact.

The other Web services include several games, as well as online movie ticketing through Fandango, and access to Live365's hundreds of Internet radio stations. All the services are available to any broadband-connected TiVo user at no additional charge.

The service was offered to TiVo users along with a set of services from Yahoo!, including access to Yahoo! Photos through the TV, and weather and traffic reports. The Yahoo! services are currently not monetized through ads, but according to Denney, the portal may choose to place ads on them in the future.