News snippets for Virgin Media's TiVo: 15.2 software rollout; Spotify; Sky; EPG

Some TiVo related snippets:

• The 15.2 software deployment dates for each regional headend (there's 50+ of them) will be announced later this week by Virgin Media, who will be eager to complete the task well before Xmas.
• The Spotify app is due to be released within the next month, following Virgin's announcement of their Spotify plans for TV, Broadband and Mobile customers.
• Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch, referring to competition from Virgin's TiVo, believes that "It’s always a trap to assume that customers think through the extreme of some technical gizmo, they think across the whole experience, simplicity, ease of use, and the importance of the user interface, which remains fundamental. Not to say that some gadget magazine might give you an easy quote."
• Speaking of Sky, they've come up with a PVR comparsion chart which, among other features,  highlights the lack of reminders and red button services on TiVo. I'm sure it won't be long until Sky have to update the red button section, along with the 'remote record from tablet' section.
• Speaking of red button - its available (and has been for a while now) on ITV, pressing the magic button on that channel just takes you to ITV Net Player content. Baby Steps, people.
• In my review, I mentioned that that "the assignment of EPG categories to channels needs some work. For instance, the HD category reveals the Sky Sports HD channels, but the Sports category doesn't. This is the same EPG limitation as on the legacy V+ HD, I could have sworn it would be fixed for TiVo."
  This issue has now been fixed - for instance, selecting the Movies Category will show both the SD and HD versions of the Sky Movies Channels. Likewise for Sky Sports.

Video of 15.2 software update for Virgin Media's TiVo

A very nice video which shows of the snapper peformance of the 15.2 software update has been created and put online by Cable Forum poster MarkyUK:


The video also features a look at a couple of multi-room streaming configuration screens. At present, Virgin haven't mentioned that this feature would be enabled in the 15.2 update, nor (to my knowledge) has any customer with the update successfully streamed content from one TiVo to another. If future multi-room streaming is something you'd be interested in, then I advise you to order a 2nd TiVo, quickly.

The software, which was piloted to 3500 TiVo customers in Crawley and Cambridge, is now rolling out region by region. A quick check to see if you have it is to goto any Sky channel and then press the Home Button - if you can continue to watch the channel within the Mini-TV window, then congratulations - you've been been updated to 15.2.

Virgin Media CEO on TiVo; Open Platform; IPTV

Comments from Neil A. Berkett (Virgin Media CEO) on the 2011 3rd Quarter results, and TiVo:

The main news on TV is strong uptake of TiVo. We have 128,000 net adds in the quarter, taking us up to 163,000 at quarter end. We've seen strong demand from both new and existing Virgin Media customers, with around 1/3 of TiVo subscribers to date being new to Virgin Media. In fact, in Q3, nearly 40% of TiVo net adds were new to Virgin Media.

Sales continued strongly since the quarter end, and as of yesterday, we have 222,000 Virgin Media TiVo customers. That is around 5% penetration of our total TV base after just one quarter of above-the-line marketing. I'm delighted in success we've had this quarter and with the positive reaction from customers. TiVo will eventually be rolled out to our entire TV base. The only question is how quickly, so we're evaluating the opportunity to accelerate this.

So why is TiVo doing so well and how is it changing customer behavior? Well, firstly, it's a superior product and our customers are loving the features. It is either a 500-gig or 1-terabyte hard drive, which can record hundreds of hours of programming. Unlike Sky Plus, it has 3 tuners so you can actually record 3 different programs at the same time as watching one you recorded earlier. TiVo really brings to life our massive, unrivaled video-on-demand library.

For example, our EPG allows customers to go backwards in time and catch up on shows they've missed. We have great search features that allow customer to discover content more easily. They can search by title, by actor, director or topic. TiVo gives intuitive programming recommendations based on the customers of viewing patterns, again, helping our customers to discover great programming on both linear and in VOD. Customers can give a thumbs up or thumbs down to individual programs to further enhance the recommendation effectiveness. In fact, the TiVo box will even record program suggestions based on viewing patterns. So even if like me, you're away and forgot to record the Mighty New Zealand winning the World Cup, if you're a rugby fan, the box will probably record it for you anyway.

The other great thing about TiVo is that it's dedicated over-the-top connection, allowing our customers to access the content and application outside our TV. Unlike in a DSL home, the bandwidth disconnection users will not impede the bandwidth of other devices they're using at the same time.

We have an open platform. We have no fear of adding to over-the-top provider as an application on TiVo because although TV is the key to the wallet for us, it is not the wallet. We make most of our margins in connectivity. We will continue to add innovative applications, like Spotify, where we're exclusively the only TV and broadband platform in the U.K. able to offer access to this music streaming service in a bundled way. We will also soon be launching our companion iPad app. Through TiVo with the first major operator to launch a TV service that will ultimately reside on everyone of our customer TVs, PCs, tablets and mobile devices. It will be the glue that brings together the TV, the PC and the mobile with a better tablet or a smartphone. It is a truly converged platform.

Others have talked about launching IPTV. We've done it. We've done it on time, on budget and it's actually the best product in the market by a long way. It's a superior service and should continue to see us acquire digitally savvy customers. Perhaps our competitors' subscribers who are attracted by the combination of the best broadband connectivity and the best TV application. It's an ARPU driver because we're charging for quality with a GBP 3 premium per month. It should also drive improved loyalty, and therefore, improve churn as we roll it out to the existing base. And that is a vastly superior service to our existing TV platform. We will also continue to add increased functionality as the year progresses. In fact, as flash-based software, it is the service that will continue to improve and evolve.

Our product today is just at the first round of a very long ladder. So how are our customers finding it? Well, firstly, they love it. Our net promoter score or customer satisfaction is much higher for TiVo than our legacy TV product. In fact, TiVo customers are twice as likely to recommend Virgin Media to their friends, by telling their friend and their family about the game-changing technology, about the content discovery and about their control. TiVo is facilitating the personalization that customers want. It's liberating them and putting them in control of their own viewing.

80% say that TiVo gives them more freedom to watch TV when they want it, 50% are watching more catch-up TV. Customers are finding the search and browse functions really, really valuable and engaging with their TV more. Half say they're watching more good quality TV, i.e. content that is more relevant to them. TiVo users love the meg of hard drive. 3/4 of our customers say they no longer have to worry about disk space. In fact, the average customers whose had the box for 3 months still hasn't filled it up. I think consumers will continue to get more and more demanding over time, that's what we're witnessing in this segment that we're targeting. With TiVo, we have a platform that we'll be able to meet, and in fact, exceed those demand.

Virgin Media release Q3 2011 results: 222,000 TiVo customers

Their numbers are growing

The 3rd Quarter results are in for Virgin Media, and the TiVo invasion of the Digital Cable network is very much underway! The 2nd Quarter results revealed that 50,000 customers had gone for the next-gen PVR.

Today's results reveal that Virgin have quadrupled their TiVo stronghold in the last 3 months, with 222,000 TV customers now in possession of the box as of yesterday (probably helped by a TV advertising campaign, the reduced activation fee and the retirement of V+ HD). According to Pocket-Lint, that works out to 1 TiVo install per minute.

The presentation also reveals some feedback from customers:

• 80% say TiVo gives more freedom
• 50% watching more catch-up
• Content discovery through search / browse
• 50% watching more good quality TV
• 75% no longer worry about disk space

Gadget Show PVR Showdown: Virgin Media's TiVo vs Sky +HD

In brief: Sky +HD has the better, faster user interface, with TiVo's described as clunky, slow and at times, irritating. Sky also won the remote battle.

TiVo won on the features, especially with recording and VOD.

Both PVRs were awarded with four stars out of five.

View the video review here.

My 1TB Virgin Media TiVo is about to get a Baby Brother

I will not get another TiVo.
I will not get another TiVo.
I will not get another TiVo.

Oh bugger it.

500Gb TiVo ordered to replace the 6 year old TV Drive/V+ HD box.

When I ordered the 1TB version, Virgin offered to move the V+ HD box to another room and waived the multi-room fee. I was assured that would still be the case after swapping the V+ HD for the 500Gb TiVo.

£49.95 fee paid for installation, which won't be until November 5th. Interestingly, Customer Services hadn't been informed about the reported change for the monthly fee.

More details on the 15.2 software update for Virgin Media's TiVo; Streaming; YouTube; Express; Padding

• Multi Room streaming support is in there, or at least a sub-screen within the System Info page is in there, which reports that streaming isn't possible on a home network which contains only 1 TiVo. Hmm. Might be time to swap out my Silver TV Drive/V HD+ box for another TiVo (and by the looks of it, I better do it before November)

• The YouTube application (supplied by Google for Smart TVs and Smart PVRs) doesn't let you log in to your account. Well, I guess that's one way to solve the 'can't view favourites when logged in' issue. Also, according to various reports, it automatically plays random videos when opened, which appears to be selected from the Teenagers Behaving Badly collection. You sense that's a Daily Mail headline just waiting to happen.
  
• The Express series link option uses the series link defaults. Nothing wrong with that....unless you want to keep more than 10 episodes.
  
• TiVo still uses 2 tuners to record back-to-back programmes on the same channel. But, padding is now clipped when there's a clash.