TiVo coming to Australia in 2008 - but will network squabbling kill it?

Adam Turner
Wednesday, 30 May 2007 12:49

Opinion and Analysis

TiVo has announced a partnership with Australia's Seven Network to bring the iconic personal video recorder to Australia, allowing viewers to pause live high definition TV and well as fast-forward ads.

Forget Topfield. Forget Beyonwiz. Forget everything. TiVo could finally drag Australian television into the 21st century and change the way we watch the idiot box forever. I'll be sitting on my money until I see exact what the TiVo has to offer in Australia.

The TiVo service will be available across Australia and will include TiVo features such as SeasonPass recordings (recording every episode of a show) and WishList searches (recording everything featuring a certain actor, director or sports team). All of these features are dependent on access to an electronic program guide so the TiVo can scan the schedule to see what's on.

Pricing is yet to be finalised but users are expected to pay for the box and then pay a small subscription fee for access to the electronic program guide that is so essential for the Personal Video Recorder to work. And that's where the problems start.

Currently Australia's television networks refuse to share their program guide in an electronic format that Personal Video Recorders can understand. Most DVD and hard drive-based recorders have the ability to extract a seven day program guide from the broadcast signal, but the networks only broadcast what's on now and what's on next. Even this is often wrong.

Efforts to provide third party EPGs for use with Media Centre computers and PVRs such as those from Topfield and Beyonwiz have been met will legal threats from the networks. The Nine Network is currently suing Australian EPG provider IceTV, claiming it is infringing Nine's copyright by distributing copies of its programming schedule. The fact you can't claim copyright over a simple list of facts hasn't deterred Nine.

Meanwhile Foxtel offers it's own TiVo-like device called an Foxtel iQ box. Nine is happy to share it's program guide with Foxtel, but that's to be expected considering Nine's owners - the Packer Family - also own 25 per cent of Foxtel. Seven and Ten refuse to share their program guide information with Foxtel, knobbling the usefulness of the iQ box.

Now Seven has dipped its toe into the PVR market, it shouldn't expect any cooperation from Nine. As a result we'll probably be left in the ludicrous situation where the Foxtel iQ doesn't work properly because it doesn't have the Seven and Ten program guides, the TiVo doesn't work properly because it doesn't have the Nine program guide, and third party providers like IceTV are being dragged through the courts by media giants like Nine.

The TiVo will be dead in the water without access to a full EPG, but now the two big network have a bargaining chip in the EPG poker game. Perhaps Nine and Seven can strike a deal, swapping EPG data for the TiVo for EPG data for the iQ box. It would be nice to see them put their petty squabbling aside for the sake of the Australian viewing public but, based on their track record, don't count on it.

UPDATE: The Australian TiVo is coming on July 29 but I've already seen one in the flesh, and I like what I've seen.