Monday, November 21, 2005

Tivo to Provide Shows for iPod and PSP

TiVo Inc. said Monday that it will let users of its digital video recorders download any TV show stored on their TiVo boxes onto iPods and PlaySation Portables.

Alviso-based TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO - News) is greatly expanding what can now be watched on the devices sold by Cupertino-based Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - News) and Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE - News).

Apple now charges $1.99 an episode to download a limited number of shows, including "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," for its new video iPods. PlayStation Portable users until now could watch only movies and music videos.

TiVo said it plans to begin testing the software with a "select group" of TiVo Series2 subscribers within the next couple of weeks. It plans to make it available to all TiVo users in the first quarter of next year.

TiVo also said it intends to employ "watermark" technologies on programs transferred to a portable device using the TiVoToGo feature that would enable tracking of the account from which a transferred program originated.

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