Earlier this week colleagues, partners, analysts and journalists convened at the Charlotte Street Hotel in London to celebrate the official launch of TiVo OS throughout Europe, as well as to learn about the upcoming release of TiVo One, a cross-screen advertising platform.
The theater room where attendees gathered was jam-packed as Matt Milne, chief revenue officer for Xperi, gave his opening remarks and provided an update on TiVo’s ecosystem of OEMs, brands and retailers, as well as provided a look at what’s to come in the proceeding months.
“TiVo is here, now,” Matt said to the room. “Over the past 12 months, we have experienced incredible success with TiVo’s independent media platform as customers have adopted and grown their TiVo OS footprint across a variety of screens and endpoints including smart TVs, video over broadband with operator partners and connected cars. As previously announced, we are on track to deliver this solution to 20 million screens globally across multiple platforms by the end of 2025.”
The session was interactive in nature and once Matt concluded his opening statements, the panel portion of the program began. To kick things off, a discussion between Gabriel Cosgrave, general manager and senior vice president of EMEA sales of Xperi, Bart Kuijten, general manager and commercial director of U.K. for Vestel and Jonathan Thompson, CEO of Everyone TV, took to the stage. The panelists discussed the future of smart TVs and what is shaping tomorrow’s viewing experience. Each panelist noted that features like the voice search are a key component and differentiator that help create a superior product, something TiVo OS offers.
The newly launched Freely TV service from Everyone TV was also on display, noting the shared common vision between TiVo, Vestel and Everyone TV — making content easy to discover. Jonathan talked about how people want all the content with no friction of finding it. Highlighting that TiVo OS provides a content-first experience and the simplicity and power behind the UX. Ed Barton, research director for Caretta Research noted that, “The main thing missing from the smart TV UX was a credible linear viewing experience which TiVo has addressed by partnering with Freely. This gives audiences access to all of the U.K. PSBs in a relatively integrated UI with unified search.”
This culminated in the celebration of the first retail availability of the first smart TVs Powered by TiVo in the U.K. by one of U.K.’s largest retailers, Argos, under their house brand Bush. These TVs are one of the first smart TVs to incorporate Freely, the new streaming service backed by Britain’s public service broadcasters. Freely seamlessly delivers the best of Britain’s public service content for free.
In the second half of the program, the team officially debuted TiVo One, a cross-screen ad platform that combines ad inventory from all TiVo OS endpoints providing advertisers with advanced forecasting, precise targeting and robust measurement to efficiently optimize branded campaigns to desired audiences. TiVo One is the latest capability to be added to Xperi’s independent media platform, connecting partners with their end users on screens from the home to the car.
Another interactive panel took place where Nathalie Lethbridge, founder of Atonik Digital moderated a discussion between Chris Kleinschmidt, vice president of EMEA sales for Xperi, Jen Antoniou, senior account director seller of EMEA CTV for Magnite, and Berangere Dagni-Reze, senior director of business strategy and partnerships for Rakuten Advertising, where they discussed redefining the connected TV (CTV) marketplace and creating lifetime customer value.
The discussion kicked off with an overview of CTV advertising, and what opportunities and struggles the panelists each face in addressing this market. Fragmentation is an issue, getting access to premium CTV at scale and education within the industry is an ongoing battle that the teams each see. Advertising buyers want transparency, especially in reporting and need access to inventory across multiple different platforms.
Brand safety was also a topic of discussion as it pertained to customer lifestyle value. Irrelevant ads increase the possibility of churn. Chris noted that TiVo is driving revenue without damaging the customer lifecycle value.
The common theme across both panels was superior user experience that is relevant and timely. Whether targeting ads via TiVo One or helping customers find the content they want to watch, without intuitive data and expertise, partners are looking to TiVo to help create sustainable growth.
The showcase commenced with live demos of TiVo OS and TiVo One while attendees enthusiastically mingled and discussed everything they had heard during the program.
Many attendees noted how impactful the demos were and that the experience in person was far better than they had expected.
You can catch up on what you missed by watching the panels:
Or, if you’d like to hear from folks who attended, see coverage from John Archer on Forbes: TiVo Celebrates 25th Birthday by Launching New Global TV Operating System.
