TiVo adds Internet video feed to TV

Basketball fans and news junkies will be able to use their TV sets to watch Internet video using a service announced Wednesday by TiVo Inc.

The system displays broadband video on the television sets of TiVo subscribers, allowing them to watch content that is not available on television today, said Tara Maitra, vice president and general manager of programming for TiVo, in Alviso, California.

Although the service is available only to TiVo and cable TV subscribers who own set-top DVRs (digital video recorders), it marks another step toward the convergence of digital media and entertainment sources scattered throughout the typical home.

TiVo calls its DVR "the focal point of the digital living room," allowing its 400,000 subscribers to play music or view photos on their TV sets.

Many technology firms are chasing that same goal, but so far they have been able to combine only pairs of devices, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod that stores music on a PC, or Sony Corp.'s digital cameras that display photographs on a TV set.

More inclusive efforts include a plan to share content among many devices through a central PC, using platforms such as Viiv from Intel Corp. or Live! from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. But those packages require high-end processors and complex chipsets to merge different types of data, so are likely to appeal only to early adopters initially.

The new "TiVoCast" service has a more modest goal, allowing specialized content providers to reach a broader audience through the TV than they could over the Internet alone.

TiVo has already announced deals to display specialized content such as highlight reels from the National Basketball Association, film reviews from The New York Times Co. and children's Danger Rangers cartoons from Educational Adventures LLC.