Select subscribers getting TiVoCast web-based programming

Following last month's deal with web video publisher Brightcove, TiVo has announced another round of partnerships that will bring various on-demand video clips to broadband-equipped Series 2 owners, with a new service called TiVoCast. The company has been making moves in this direction for some time now, but this is the first time we're being offered content that we'd actually bother watching, including NBA and WNBA highlights, New York Times-produced video (featuring David Pogue's often-humorous reviews), advice from CNET, and a dose of hip hop culture from H2O, along with male- and female-targeted programming from Heavy.com and iVillage, respectively. The new content -- accessible from the "Showcases" screen when it begins appearing next month -- will not be available to everyone, however, as USA Today is reporting that neither DirecTV subscribers nor Comcast customers will have access to any of these value-added TiVoCast downloads.

[visitor @ Jun 7th 2006 1:04PM]

Very cool!

[Raikage @ Jun 7th 2006 1:11PM]

I wonder if you can record stuff like videos on the web...hummm...Like anyone needs all those stupidvideos...
P.S. That would be awesome...plus I NEED stupid videos...

The Raikage

[Nick @ Jun 7th 2006 1:15PM]

If they were to get a deal with you tube we could see the start of thing really cool here...

[Steven @ Jun 7th 2006 1:31PM]

I've already got product reviews being sent to me. After watching 1.5 of them, I deleted that feature.
Horrible "acting" and horrible scripts. Plus there was really no information about the product itself.

[DC @ Jun 7th 2006 1:57PM]

DirecTV subscribers such as myself have been locked out of pretty much every new and useful TiVo innovation for the past three or four years.

Had I known this would happen, I would never have bought the DirecTiVo machine in the first place.

[BiggusDiccus @ Jun 7th 2006 2:23PM]

To hell with this! Bring on the Series 3 Baby! I want my HD, Dual Tuner Tivo fix. I can't take the Time Warner DVR for another minute. IT SUCKS!!! Who's with me?

[Blake @ Jun 7th 2006 5:06PM]

I am with you, I hate the Time Warner DVR.

[The Jeremy @ Jun 7th 2006 7:44PM]

As a Comcast subscriber, I certainly have not received any of these clips. I as of Friday, I'm not even receiving any RocketBooms vidcasts. Anyone else have their RocketBooms quit? Maybe Amanda is taking a break....perhaps I should look up the actual site and see what is going on...

[Doug @ Jun 12th 2006 9:52AM]

So far, this seems danerous.

Who determines the content that makes it to your Tivo? We have only a select group of "content providers" determining what you can see here.

This feature has great potential. You should be able to type in any arbitrary URL and, if the site is set up correctly, be able to access the video information directly. This would be a real boon to anyone who wants to independently produce a video and broadcast it.

Though of course, the big media companies won't allow Tivo to do this. They don't want to be bypassed in this way. I'm sure they'll make up some lame excuse about copyright protection ("pointing to any URL means you can view pirated content!!").

This, combined with the failure of Internet Neutrality, is helping to execute a death sentence for the freedom we have always expected from the Internet.