Cable Congress 2010 – Brussels. Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett has confirmed that TiVo software will be in set-top boxes deployed by the cablenet this autumn.
“We will be launching TiVo at the end of the year and we will have TiVo inside our set-top boxes across all of our customers,” Berkett told the Cable Congress on Thursday afternoon. He has previously stated November as to when the first TiVo-enabled boxes will be made available to customers. “We believe TiVo will supply the best user experience, Flash-based, and creating a new gateway to the digital world, so no longer will we think about ‘I’m in a walled garden’ or ‘I’m not in a walled garden’. What you don’t want to do is confuse customers, if they can get it, they should be able to get it. Being able to search for a particular style of programme or being able to search for a particular actor and being presented with your options whether they are linear, video-on-demand or over-the-top will become irrelevant”.
Berkett said he believed Virgin had selected the best user interface, which in combination with the best network would become increasingly important.
Embracing the delivery of content from all media, Berkett said it would be possible for subscribers to watch their favourite show as part of the operator’s VOD service or at the touch of a button order the boxed set to be delivered to their door.
Earlier this week TiVo announced details of the Premiere cable set-top that is seen as the basis for the Virgin model.
