TiVo Inc., the pioneer of the digital video recorder, hopes its new DVRs coming out this spring will keep the company relevant in an age when broadcast and broadband will be combined in TVs.
The new TiVo Premiere boasts a thinner, sleeker look with a revamped menu and features that will more closely integrate TV shows and Internet content. A search for an actor, for instance, brings up his movies that are coming up on TV or available for rental or purchase through , as well as related YouTube videos.
“This is a whole new chapter in TiVo’s evolution,” chief executive Tom Rogers said in an interview. “We’re moving toward ‘get anything you want whenever you want it.’ “
In doing so, the company also hopes to regain the cachet that made the word “TiVo” synonymous with TV recording — a verb that has faded in use with the rise of generic recorders that cable- and satellite-TV companies make available to their subscribers. TiVo could use a sales boost because the company has barely ever made money.
