• by Doug Chavez , Columnist, June 11, 2015

This week has seen another round of companies announcing new and improved streaming services.

At Apple’s annual WWDC event in San Francisco, it announced their highly anticipated streaming music service. And just yesterday, TiVo introduced TiVo Online, a product that enables TiVo subscribers to stream DVR recordings as well as live TV over the Web.

Both streaming announcements are big news for the respective companies and a nod to the tidal wave of consumers cord cutting and expecting media in their pockets and on the go.

For those of you that follow my posts, you know I have been writing about the rise, nay, the march of connected TV and streaming services. In fact, I have written about it a few times already this year.

It seems that each month there are new product updates and announcements from all the big players, as well as established companies in the space evolving beyond their original businesses. The announcement this week from TiVo is a great example of an older business model adapting to cord cutting. Add to this, the updated figures I’ve read about connected TVs adoption.

A forecast predicts that by the end of 2017, there will be around 147 million connected TV sets in the U.S. That’s a lot of cord cutting! Clearly, the cord cutters have crossed the chasm and have come to expect their content on the go and always accessible.

TiVo, the company that launched the DVR, this week introduced TiVo Online a service that takes DVR content and lets users access it on the go. TiVo recognized the trend and knew it had to adapt to the growing and entrenched consumer behavior. TiVo had to adapt to survive in a fast-changing landscape to stay relevant and as consumers wanted to un-chain DVR content from their set top box and deliver it on a mobile device. 

TiVo has done well to continually address evolving consumer needs. For example, they introduced a DVR aimed at cord cutters with the introduction of TiVo Roamio OTA. With TiVo Online consumers DVR recordings and their live TV streams behave like the streaming services many consumers are already accustomed to using.

It will be interesting to see where TiVo takes this new service and following the adoption. I once thought TiVo was doomed as cable and satellite providers baked in DVR to their set top boxes.

On the music front this week, Apple introduced their music streaming service. There are so many reasons it’s great to own the platform and have a massive installed base and millions of credit cards on file -- for one, instant scale. iTunes already accounts for 75% of the global digital music market, worth over $7b a year. 

Even with a small percentage of their iTunes audience subscribing, their new streaming service is set to put the competition on notice. One feature that seems cool and one that I think consumers will like is the ability to connect with artists on the service via Connect, an aspect of the streaming service that draws upon social media content from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, all in once place.

Other services have social sharing, but Apple may have  outdone others with the way this social content is embedded and for more than just sharing content with friends.

I’m looking forward to testing out these services and reporting back in the coming months. As marketers, we have to continually adapt to a fast-moving landscape.

How will you take cues from how these companies have adapted and re-invented themselves to stay relevant with their audiences?