know | Future

TiVo has announced that an upoming version of TiVo ToGo will allow users to transfer recorded content to their brand spanking new video enabled iPods as well as to the PlayStation Portable which more practical mobile video viewer. Details are sketchy though apparently you will need to purchase additional software to make the magic happen.

Now, if it works properly, which considering how difficult TiVo ToGo is to use I don’t expect it will, and you look past the fact that out of the total population of TiVo subscribers that use TiVo ToGo is only about 300,000, this may ultimately put the kibosh on dreams of selling tons of downloadable, drm’ed video content via iTunes.

On the plus side for iTunes, they have a huge user base (10 Million registered users girls and boys) and a piece of software that is freely downloadable, straightforward and user friendly. Users may be willing to pay the $1.99 just for the convenience, even if they get a lower quality video. Both the TiVo content and the iTunes content will have the usual annoying DRM, so that is a wash. I also doubt iTunes will ever sync video to PSPs considering the odd detente going on between Apple and Sony, but the jury is still out on the popularity of the PSP and its potential longevity as a platform.

Apparently, Apple was unaware and did not participate in the planning for this, so that explains the mysterious mention in the TiVo press release about the need for additional software. I read this as meaning that they are not counting on iTunes to feed the video content to the iPod, and a good thing too as his Steveness must be none too pleased about this. I also suspects that the networks are also a bit concerned about TiVo stealing the thunder from all their digital distribution deals.

The takeaway from this announcement is that the world continues to fracture and we need to steer our clients to diversify their media portfolios