“This license agreement with Roku underscores the importance of TiVo’s comprehensive patent portfolios for the fast-growing streaming entertainment industry,” Samir Armaly, executive vice president of intellectual property for TiVo parent company Rovi, said in a statement. “We look forward to supporting Roku with innovative entertainment enhancements that will be enjoyed for years to come by its current and future customers.”
Given that the name TiVo is essentially synonymous with DVRs, it would be easy to speculate that Roku could be looking at offering a stand-alone DVR or building DVR technology into
So what will we see out of this new deal? For now, that remains a mystery, but there is some key wording in TiVo’s announcement that offers a few clues. TiVo says that the deal includes “an option for Roku to access TiVo’s high-quality entertainment metadata,” as well as “other TiVo products to further power intuitive search and navigation.” Combined with the recent Roku OS update that allows users to opt-in and have their
Roku isn’t the only company to have made this type of deal, as both Netflix and HBO recently made similar deals with TiVo.
It will likely be a while before we see the results of this deal, but chances are good that we’ll see them in the next line of Roku devices.
