Much like the relentless Florida Gators in last night's national championship football game, TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) just keeps coming. The company can spin out more promotional releases than any similar organization I know of, regardless of the time of year. But throw in the backdrop of this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and it's Katie bar the door.
Having said that, it appears that yesterday's fare of TiVo releases involved truly newsworthy announcements. In addition, if you carefully ponder the new applications of the company's capabilities, I think you'll wind up as convinced as I am that broadband truly is about to blow the socks off those television aficionados who have not kept up with the array of new functionalities quietly being added to their providers' repertoires.
The first announcement -- or at least the first I noticed -- involved a new service that TiVo and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) are trying out: providing TiVo features on Comcast digital video recorders (DVRs). It essentially appears that TiVo has developed a software application that will enable Comcast to deploy the service remotely and without the need for a truck roll or a technician's visit. Consumers will then be able to enjoy Comcast's robust video-on-demand service and its growing range of high-definition offerings combined with TiVo's suite of DVR capabilities, including its smart search and discovery features, Wish List searches, and TiVo Suggestions.
Having watched interactive functionalities trickle into the broadband world at a far slower rate than most investment community observers expected, I do believe that Comcast customers are in for a treat when they master this triumvirate of features. I also believe that it could be just a matter of time before we'll see similar joint announcements between TiVo and such other cable providers as Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), Charter (NASDAQ:CHTR), and Cablevision (NYSE:CVC).
Another noteworthy TiVo announcement Monday involved a partnership between the company and Roxio, a division of Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ:SNIC), regarding the anticipated availability of TiVoToGo for the Macintosh platform. With this advancement, subscribers with broadband-connected TiVo Series2 DVRs will be able to transfer their recorded shows for viewing on their Macs and burn them to DVDs.
So TiVo continues to advance the use of its product and features. And wonder of wonders, it may even be beginning to generate some positive attention in the investment community. However, it clearly will be many moons -- if ever -- before the company crosses the line into profitability. I believe there's a perfectly good (and relatively safe) way to invest in TiVo's solid capabilities: It's called buying shares in Comcast.
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Fool contributor David Lee Smith does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned. He welcomes your questions or comments. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
