TiVo Does Something Goofy

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TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) keeps going all Hollywood on us.

The DVR pioneer is hooking up with Disney (NYSE: DIS), through CinemaNow, to provide 24-hour rentals of Disney films directly through TiVo's boxes.

The ability to digitally download content into TiVo hard drives is huge, at a time when Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) and Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) are hoping to squeeze one more box into your home-theater system.

TiVo won't suddenly be rolling in Mickey Mouse money by the time the service launches later this year. The company has been offering digital purchases and rentals through Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) Unbox program since last year, and neither company has been eager to produce the performance numbers. Knowing both TiVo and Amazon, the companies would have been generous with the press releases if the digital content were selling briskly. You can bet that TiVo will be pressed for more details on that front when it reports earnings tonight.

I'm not belittling this morning's deal. In addition to the Amazon relationship, TiVo has been serving up music through RealNetworks (Nasdaq: RNWK) and will begin delivering free videos through Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) YouTube later this year. The TiVo box is sure getting crowded with digital content, and that's probably better news for TiVo than it is for Disney.

This morning's press release didn't single out any specific Disney movie titles that will be available through the rental service, but this is still one more name in TiVo's black book. Despite the uninspiring subscriber growth at TiVo in recent quarters, it's good to know that the company's map of Hollywood is accumulating more pushpins.

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