The Digital Life Press event tonight at the Nikki Midtown in Manhattan was highlighted by a presentation by Tom Rogers (pictured at left), president and CEO of TiVo. Rogers explained five new features TiVo plans to roll out over the next year or so. The direction he's planning on taking TiVo, decidedly online.

Check below the fold for the new services, with a brief description and soft launch date for each:

1. Home Movies — Through a partnership with One True Media, TiVo users will be able to upload home movies, then create channels which friends and family can subscribe to through their own TiVo receivers to watch the uploaded video on their TVs. (expected early in 2007)
2. Auto transcode Web content — Using TiVo desktop software, users will be able to set up their receivers to transcode select formats of video from the Internet to be played on their television sets through their TiVo. (expected to be available by the end of 2006)
3. TiVoCast expansion — TiVoCast is the service which allows users to download professionally produced content from the Internet to TiVo receivers. The service itself isn't new, but Rogers did announce a few new partnerships, including CBS. CBS will provide some Internet-only content as well as actual broadcast content which Rogers referred to as "news-related." Other partners include Forbes and Reuters. (expected by the end of November)
4. Unified search — This sounds a lot more exciting than it actually is. Basically, TiVo's search function will pull results from all content available to your TiVo, home movies, TiVoCast content, Guru (more below) Guides and broadcast content. (expected Spring 2007)
5. ICM Celebrity Guru Guides — Through a partnership with International Creative Management, TiVo will expand its Guru Guides program. Basically, celebrities will make lists of what they're watching, or what they're in. TiVo users can get suggestions from the celebrities they watch. (no date specified)

Rogers seems to be devoted to making TiVo the bridge from the Internet to the television. "For my kids, there is no distinction between broadcast and cable television, there will be no distinction between cable and broadband content in the future." Rogers said. He wants TiVo to be the company that facilitates that merging of content. There is a problem, however.

After the presentation I asked Rogers what percentage of TiVo subscribers currently hook their receivers up to the Internet, his answer, "With new subscribers it's up above 50%" (The emphasis is mine.) When I asked about total customers, he admitted the number was between 20% and 30%. This number is probably artificially low, because a high percentage of TiVo's customers are derived through a deal with DirecTV. The TiVo PVR is integrated with the DirecTV receiver, DirecTV mandates that broadband connectivity not be allowed with these devices. If you take the DirecTV subscribers, who don't have the option of connecting to the Internet with their receivers, out of the equation, the percentage is much higher. The Catch 22 is that DirecTV accounts for a huge chunk of TiVo's customers, a chunk which won't reap any benefit from TiVo's new direction.

TiVo's deal with DirecTV is up early in 2007, subscribers with integrated receivers will be grandfathered for the service, but DirecTV won't sell anymore integrated units. This is a big problem for TiVo. It has signed deals with a few cable companies, including Comcast, to license its software for integrated units, but they have been slow to develop. Set-top boxes have never been big sellers for the company. Hopefully, at least for TiVo, this bridge from broadband to television can replace the customers it will lose from DirecTV in the next couple of years.

Before you ask, yes there was a schwag bag, it was provided by TiVo and included a pen, notepad, stuffed animal and TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter. Unfortunately, since my TiVo is integrated with my DirecTV receiver, the wireless adapter is useless to me. If one of you loyal readers out there could put it to use drop me a line at bward at thedeal dot com, and I'll send it to you. The stuffed animal, however, is already spoken for. — Brian Ward