TiVo parent company Xperi is accelerating its plans to break into the smart TV operating system market with TiVo Stream, the platform running on its Android TV-based TiVo Stream 4K.
During last week’s earning call, CEO Jon Kirchner acknowledged that his company’s previous three-phase plan for growing TiVo Stream is now down to just two phases including launching the platform on smart TVs. The company said expanding onto smart TVs will boost Stream’s footprint and engagement and therefore drive more revenue.
Kirchner said the change in plans for TiVo came after Google last year revealed its new Google TV platform, which he said goes beyond the core Android TV offering and really gets in the UX business.
“And in so doing, it eclipses one's ability to, I think, reasonably be an alternative that might otherwise live on their lower-level time platform,” he said, according to a Motley Fool transcript. “And so, we've really jumped from Phase I, which is Stream 4K, directly into working aggressively on getting our solutions embedded in TVs in a deeper level.”
RELATED: Google makes Android TV more like Google TV
Google TV launched in late 2020 along with Google’s updated Chromecast device. The Google TV experience will eventually launch on many more devices in the Android TV ecosystem including 2021 smart TVs from Sony and TCL. Over time, all new retail devices on the Android TV OS will have the Google TV experience, according to a Google spokesperson.
As The Desk’s Matthew Keys pointed out, the TiVo Stream 4K was originally intended to be priced at $70 after its initial $50 promotional period. But the company never raised the cost, which could be due in part to the $50 price tag on Chromecast with Google TV.
Now TiVo is focused on breaking into the smart TV market. Kirchner said that his company is currently having discussions with potential partners who are “quite engaged around it.”
TiVo will have its work cut out for it if it wants to grab a meaningful share of the smart TV OS market. Many major smart TV OEMs like Samsung and Vizio have their own platforms while Amazon, Google and Roku have licensed their platforms to several smart TV makers like TCL. Comcast has also begun talking about expanding its Xfinity X1/Flex platform beyond its cable footprint and into smart TVs.