Wednesday 27 July 2011

Virgin Media CEO: TiVo impact will equal DOCSIS 3.0; October software update? Multi-room streaming?

Here's some TiVo related comments from Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett, taken from the transcript for Virgin's Q2 2011 Earnings Call Transcript:
I think TiVo will do to our video business what DOCSIS 3.0 to our broadband business. I think it will significantly change our brand, our perception and our ongoing delivery...

....Application is different. Application starts to create the glue beyond the raw horsepower of connectivity. Applications is nothing without connectivity, and connectivity is nothing without application, and TiVo is the best connected TV certainly in the U.K., and I would argue in the world because it's produced by connected TV experts. It's all they do. That's why we partnered with them. That's why it's actually launched on time, because a lot of our peers decided that they would build their own. It has a net promoter score, major of advocacy (over detraction) of plus 30%. If I had a customer base that had a level of advocacy of plus 30%, I wouldn’t be standing here today talking to you, I would have retired.

It is a massive, massive driver of advocacy. Our customers absolutely love us. Every single review of TiVo puts it as the best way to watch TV bam bam and I’m obviously deliberately using that phrase and I may not use that but that’s what they are saying and that’s what you’re seeing on the billboards at the moment.

It is an amazing product and it allows us to create the glue between the social strength, the TV, the personal screen your PC or laptop and the remote screen, your smartphone and tablet somewhere in between, because you will be able to access.

Neil Berkett also appears to imply that the next software update for TiVo will be in October, and will feature multi-room streaming from other TiVos in your home:


Just think about October, the second drop. The access your hard drive from another device. Your connected TV would by then know you. It will be recording things the things you've forgot to record.

He then mentions other, existing features of the box:
It will allow you to go backwards and see that somebody has deleted something that you didn't want deleted and you can undelete it; just lucky can on a PC. It will have applications like the Harry Potter app where we created an application around the launch of the first series where we had little clips and customers can go into Harry Potter and in they can go in and view and purchase Harry Potter. They can look at that video on demand library. It's got the intelligence to look at how (linear open garden), a linear walled-garden in video-on-demand are now selected over the top. It will do for us in the TV space what DOCSIS 3.0 has done for us in connectivity

2 comments:

harri said...

How do virgin expect to provide a decent service with a new technology when they cnnot provide a decent service with the technology they curently have, I guess they are trying to drive customers to buy int the new, by not supporting the current

harri said...

Unfortunately if they do not improve the current customer service i would rather stick with betamax tapes, better quality than the current non tivo option

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