Sony to Incorporate TiVo Features into Product Line

by Alan Sheckter, Smart TV & Sound news editor

A new licensing agreement between Sony Corp. and TiVo, a major digital video recorder service provider, was announced Oct. 19. It is expected to allow Sony to integrate TiVo’s patented hardware and software designs into various consumer electronics devices.

This corporate marriage, both companies anticipate, will create new kinds of consumer products and services that will bring more TV entertainment choice to consumers.

Sony, already an investor in TiVo Inc., is expected to pay advance fees to TiVo for source code access. In addition, reports say, Sony will pay royalties on a product-by-product basis.

This is not the first cooperative arrangement for the two companies. An initial relationship two years ago resulted in the creation of Sony Digital Network Recorders with the TiVo Service. Sony began marketing and distributing Sony DirecTV receives with incorporated TiVo service last year.

From TiVo’s point of view, according to a press statement from TiVo president and CEO Mike Ramsay, the new affirmation from Sony further validates TiVo’s technologies and services. And having TiVo service on Sony digital recording devices should spur TiVo’s subscriber base, he said.

The agreement comes a few weeks after Boston-based Pause Technology announced it was suing TiVo for patent infringement. Pause claimed that it secured a patent, in 1995, to live-pause TV, as well as to replay parts of programs as they are being recorded.