“TiVo’s (TIVO) digital video recorder allows on-demand
viewing of previously aired TV shows and actually runs its own
version of the Linux operating system. TiVo inked a deal with AOL
(AOL) Wednesday for $200 million to specially configure its devices
for AOL-TV and to develop a special co-branded version of
TiVo.”
“In addition to special treatment from TiVo, AOL gets to ride
shotgun if and when TiVo worms its way into cable systems
nationwide as a fancy control box. TiVo, meanwhile, may eventually
get a leg-up in selling its box to Time Warner (TWX) for use in
Time Warner’s cable system.”
“But Microsoft (MSFT) is hot on TiVo’s heels with a service
called UltimateTV — some software for managing TV viewing and a
dial-up TV-listings service. The company announced Tuesday that
Hughes Electronics’ DirecTV and Thomson Multimedia’s (TNS) RCA will
manufacture satellite receivers with the software, which will allow
them to double as TiVo-like digital video recorders.”