Pennsylvania’s Service Electric becomes 18th tier 2 MSO to sign on to TiVo whole-home solution

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based Service Electric Cable TV has partnered with TiVo to bring the technology company’s whole-home video solution to its 125,000 pay-TV customers. 

TiVo said it has now partnered with 18 tier 2 cable companies in the U.S., including the National Cable Television Cooperative, which represents more than 800 small operators. TiVo’s whole-home offering includes the TiVo UX running on Arris Series 6 Gateways and associated clients. 

“This allows us to instantly bring our video service to a level we weren’t at before with flexibility to expand into things like IP distribution,” said Chris Kelly, assistant manager of engineering and customer premises equipment for Service Electric. 

Kelly specifically pointed out the integration of online video services like Netflix and YouTube into TiVo’s operating system, allowing customers to access their favorite digital programming services, as well as cable service assets like VOD, without changing video source inputs. 

“On our own, negotiating [those integration deals] would be impossible,” he said. Kelly added that the ability to integrate multiscreen services is another key value add. 

“TiVo is a familiar name to our customers,” he said. “We expect our number of whole-home customers to expand exponentially.”

For his part, Jim Denney, TiVo's VP of product management and strategy, said the merger with Rovi Corp. has further solidified the company’s position in the U.S. tier 2 cable market. 

“The cable business has actually become more important to the combined company,” he said. “The company now has a combined portfolio of things like search and recognition, and metadata, that it can bring to bear in the space. We can now power a whole cross-section of entertainment experiences.”