Portable Planet

Consumers are being presented with more and more choices of what to watch on television these days. With programming coming in from hundreds of digital cable channels, combined with movies, TV shows and high-quality video available for download through the TiVoCast service and Amazon Unbox™ on TiVo, with the latter alone now having thousands of titles itself, it is easy to get lost in this sea of choices. Enter the TiVo service’s new universal Swivel Search, the first truly TV-centric on-screen search tool that allows subscribers to explore and discover broadcast, cable and broadband-available content in one easy-to-use experience.

TiVo Inc, the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today began releasing the TiVo service’s universal Swivel Search, which provides broadband-connected TiVo subscribers the power to quickly find programming. Rather than starting with a title or keyword, with universal Swivel Search on the TiVo service, TiVo subscribers can also search using the way they intuitively think about television; that is, by starting with a program they currently enjoy and using elements of that program to find more of what they like. Universal Swivel Search allows viewers to seamlessly link from descriptions of one program to all others that have common elements, including program name, actors, or suggestions based on other viewers’ feedback. Additionally, users can find programs related to a specific subject with ‘tags,’ which are topic-related terms that might not be included in the program’s title or episode description, but fall under an over-arching subject of interest.

Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo, said, “Universal Swivel Search is an easy way to find programming from virtually anywhere, any time the user wants. We know that as broadband video continues its rapid growth, and broadcast and cable programming continue to proliferate, consumers are finding it more and more difficult to find the content they want, when they want it. Now there is a fun and easy new way for TiVo subscribers to explore the few degrees of separation connecting content that they enjoy in a way that matches how the TV viewer thinks about programming.”

By way of example, a user would start with a television show or movie that they enjoy, for instance Seinfeld. Seinfeld features Julia Louis-Dreyfus from the cast list. With the click of a button, the viewer can ’swivel’ and see other programs that the actor appears in, for instance, The New Adventures of Old Christine, including both broadcast lineup and available for download. Additionally, from that cast list a user can select Clark Greg and discover that he was also in The West Wing. With universal Swivel Search, a TiVo subscriber’s search can jump from a show to an actor, to a second actor and then to another show, following a unique path through the content that interests them. The new ’swivel’ ability is not limited to actors, but available on topic tags, or even lists of similar programs.

“A consumer has on average 200 channels of programming through digital cable, which adds up to over 30,000 hours of programming every week,” said Jim Denney, vice president of product marketing at TiVo. “Then combine that with the thousands of hours of content that is currently available through download via Amazon Unbox™ on TiVo or TiVo’s TiVoCast service. Now with Swivel Search, consumers will be able to easily find and get content that is most interesting to them no matter where it comes from.”

Universal Swivel Search will begin rolling out to broadband-connected Series2™ and Series3™ subscribers today. TiVo subscribers can sign up at www.tivo.com/priority to ensure universal Swivel Search is delivered to their boxes as soon as possible.

Source: TiVo