Intel recruits TiVo to Viiv cause

Intel has persuaded TiVo to support its Viiv media centre PC platform. According to reports, the PVR pioneer will ensure programmes recorded on its set-top boxes will play on Viiv-based machines.

Intel today said it will be partnering with around 40 content companies to promote Viiv, and TiVo is one of them, a number of online reports claim, some citing Kevin Corbett, Intel's VP in charge of content services.

Certainly, when we spoke to Intel VP and general manager, sales and marketing group, Anand Chandrasekher yesterday, he said some 250 companies will be joining Intel to launch Viiv, which is expected to come to market in Q1 2006. That number includes content providers and big names from the consumer electronics world, he said, without naming names.

"It's not just the usual-suspect PC vendors," he told The Register.

One of them could be Apple, if recent speculation about its next Mac Mini release proves correct.

The TiVo deal is surprising, nonetheless. One of key roles Intel sees Viiv-based systems playing is in providing exactly the kind of time-shift TV functionality TiVo's set-top boxes offer. In that respect, the two companies are in competition with each other.

But if Intel's efforts to promote its Centrino mobile platform are anything to go by, it's going to be driving Viiv hard, and TiVo, having seen which other third-parties are rallying behind it, may figure if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

The reports point to the likes of British Sky Broadcasting, Canal Plus, MovieLink, Telecom Italia, SK Telecom, VirginMega, Ubisoft, Napster, Square Enix, Pinnacle and Adobe. ®

Tivo before (left) and after the Intel Viiv tie-in?