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Technology Stocks : Tivo (TIVO) Interactive TV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (953)	4/30/2003 9:59:24 PM
From: Ron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2093

He's a heavyweight. Market seemed to like it too.. Tivo Inc. (NASDAQ:TIVO) on Wednesday tapped NBC executive Martin Yudkovitz as president, the latest move by the television recording technology company in its effort to transform into a provider of media services and content. Yudkovitz was key in the creation of cable news networks CNBC and MSNBC as well as MSNBC.com. He accepts the role left vacant in January when Morgan Guenther, Tivo's previous president, resigned. Tivo, whose technology lets viewers pause live TV and automatically record up to 80 hours of shows based upon viewing habits, said Yudkovitz's mandate is increasing deployment of Tivo service and technology through partnerships with satellite and cable TV and advertising partnerships. "Tivo has grown up much more as a Silicon Valley technology and marketing company, than a television-based company -- we are trying to change that," he said. "Our brand is associated as much with TV entertainment. and we want to reinforce that." San Jose-based Tivo, perhaps the most well know maker of digital video recorders, or DVRs, said Yudkovitz would use his expertise to focus on helping Tivo make deals with content creators that can eventually generate revenue. "We have focused on the subscription business, but we have always thought that the potential is to create business models that go beyond that," Tivo Chief Executive Michael Ramsay told Reuters. "His experience will help us." Tivo gains the lion's share of its revenue from subscribers who pay either $13 a month or a one-time fee of $300. It hopes to draw more revenue from advertising deals, licensing and selling specialized services to its customers. It may also begin to market data about its users' viewing habits, since it can track precisely which programs -- and ads -- are watched by its more than 600,000 subscribers. That's a small sample compared to the 100 million U.S. TV-viewing households, but one large enough to satisfy advertisers hungry to know if their money is well spent. "We are seeing a lot of momentum around the adverting, promotions and audience research area, and I think that will be one area of focus for (Yudkovitz) to look at," Ramsay said. In March, the company released data about what its viewers watched during the Academy Awards broadcast, saying that PepsiCo Inc.'s Pepsi beverage ad was the most watched, but that viewership dropped an average of 25 percent during commercial breaks. Critics suggest that Tivo must find alternative sources of revenue, as consumer electronics brands such as Thomson's (SBF:TMS) RCA and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd.(TOKYO:6752) as well as cable TV providers, develop their own DVR systems. Shares of San Jose, California-based Tivo closed at $5.94, up 14 cents, or about 2.41 percent on Nasdaq on Wednesday.