US cable and telecom operator taps TiVo for migration to all-IP video

US regional telecom and cable operator  TDS  Telecom  has chosen TiVo’s latest platform  to deliver TV services to its  customers as part of a plan to migrate away from legacy QAM and Mediaroom services to a single TiVo-powered IP video platform.

TDS Telecom will roll out its new TiVo-powered video services to  new and existing TV subscribers in both cable operations and wireline service areas.

TiVo said its platform will allow TDS to deliver hyper-personalisation, advanced search and recommendations, voice control, seamless discovery across linear, over-the-top, on-demand and cloud-DVR platforms, with superior multiscreen capabilities via a cloud-based, device-agnostic service.

TDS’s video service will IP VOD, IP linear, start-over/catch-up and network DVR. TiVo’s will be deployed across a range of clients including managed Android TV set-tops and unmanaged consumer-owned streamer devices such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices.

“We really believe that this platform is the ideal product offering to bridge the gap between the traditional linear pay TV experience and the drastically changing trends in video consumption. It is built to adhere to all of those customer segments and demands,” said Julie Maiers, vice-president of marketing and product development and Pat Ferguson, video product management for TDS Telecom.

The pair cited “the rich metadata and recommendations engine, conversational voice search and pure aggregation of OTT content into a stellar user interface and experience” as advantages brought by TiVo.

In its cable network areas, TDS will use the TiVo deployment as part of a plan to migrate all its services to IP “eventually”, which Maiers and Ferguson said would “help immensely as we continue to introduce higher DOCSIS speeds to the home in cable”.

Maiers and Ferguson said that TDS plans to will cap sales of its legacy QAM video products and push all new customer growth toward the TiVo IPTV product, when the new service is launched in cable markets.

In wireline markets, TDS will cap sales of its current Mediaroom IPTV product and move exclusively to TiVo’s for new customer additions.

“The plan is to maintain our ‘legacy’ customer base and products associated, opportunistically migrating customers to the new platform as it makes sense.  There may be areas where that migration takes flight sooner than others, but that strategy is still being ironed out,” the pair told DTVE.

Maiers and Ferguson said that the company will deploy a managed Android TV set-top as part of this effort, along with delivering TV to a range of customer-owned devices for in-home streaming options.

“TiVo’s next-gen platform will power a consistent, unified experience across TDS’s base, including across a host of clients including managed Android TV STBs and unmanaged consumer-owned streamer devices such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices,” said Michael Hawkey, SVP and general manager for TiVo.

TDS currently offers TV via a mix of technologies over cable, including legacy QAM video on digital-to-analogue converters, iGuide and Passport, together with Espial Elevate for its premium offering. About 27% of its wireline IPTV base is currently enabled for Mediaroom.

TDS is the seventh largest local exchange telephone company in the US with 1.2 million connections to high-speed internet, phone, and TV services.