• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 8, 2007

In its bid to differentiate itself from generic DVRs, TiVo has reached an agreement with Amazon.com that joins Apple in serving as a possible paradigm for the ongoing convergence between the Web and TV screen. Now TiVo users will be able to download and transfer a slew of TV shows and movies to their TVs with TiVo functioning as the middleman.

The service, called "Amazon Unbox on TiVo," will be immediately available to 600,000 TiVo users with an advanced unit, out of a current universe of 1.5 million. They can rent and purchase content from providers such as Fox, Lions Gate and Universal via video download, and send it through a TiVo box to the TV screen. (The total number of TiVo boxes in circulation is 4.5 million.)

"There hasn't been a clear, easy path to the television [until now]," said Tara Maitra, TiVo's vice president, general manager of programming, at a New York media event on Wednesday. "We're really blurring the lines between television and broadband."

Amazon's 6-month-old Unbox download service allows consumers to move content to their PCs or some portable devices. Now, it will be synched with TVs.

Similarly, the new Apple TV allows users to transfer downloaded iTunes content such as TV series or movies from their computers to their TVs.

Maitra said that even as content consumption via broadband grows, TiVo will continue to base its business on consumer desire to view shows and movies on the TV screen.

"We're trying to focus on bringing everything to the television that's easy for the consumer," she said.

The downloaded shows will be accessible through the "Now Playing" section on the TiVo interface along with the recorded shows. Like iTunes, TV shows can be purchased for $1.99--the same price to rent some films. Film purchases will run between $9.99 and $14.99.

By merging broadband applications with its core TV interface--something TiVo started last year--the DVR company is looking for a new way to gain supremacy on generic, less-functional DVRs that cable and satellite operators are rapidly rolling out.