TiVo Changes Tune, Plays Nice with Media

TiVo isn’t a media pariah anymore, the New York Times reports, thanks to a series of moves to buddy up with networks it once scared. TiVo recently signed a deal to provide NBC with second-by-second ratings of programs, showing exactly which ads people are watching. It has also developed technology to help out jilted advertisers, displaying banner messages while viewers zip past commercials.

The new chumminess comes in a week of good news for TiVo, which won a $90 million patent lawsuit and then posted a lower-than-expected quarterly loss. Networks are rushing to replicate NBC’s deal, said TiVo’s CEO. “We aggressively went out and said, ‘We’re going to partner with the media industry.’”  Media isn’t just TV – the company has inked music pacts with Amazon and Rhapsody, and will license its software to computers. (More TiVo stories.)