TiVo Becomes Video Aggregator

In a monster
move towards video aggregation and independently produced video blogging,
TiVo is set to announce today a new service allowing users to download
video content from the Internet (hopefully including RSS enclosures)
and mix
it with content captured from cable and broadcast TV.

This is a key and much anticipated move to migrate independent news,
commentary, entertainment and video blogging from the computer screen
to the living room TV or home entertainment center. Potentially a revolutionary
step towards breaking the major media monopoly on America’s eyeballs.

Hopefully it will spur development of tools allowing non-professionals
to create and distribute video content without a multi-million-dollar
studio setup and access to the presently tightly controlled channels
of broadcast and cable TV distribution. Is Qualcomm quaking in its boots
yet? We doubt it, but hopefully they will be looking over their shoulders
shortly….

"This is the fourth electronic video service, and it is an alternative
to cable, satellite and broadcast television," said Tom Wolzien,
an analyst at Bernstein Investment Research and Management. Those traditional
services, Mr. Wolzien said, "have been the monster gatekeepers,
but this is a way for content providers to get past them."

from the New York Times