M+E Daily

TiVo signed an expanded, six-year deal with Altice USA under which the U.S. division of Dutch telecom giant Altice broadened its license to the TiVo patent portfolios used to build customizable, next-generation TV services, according to TiVo.

As part of the new agreement, Altice USA also deployed TiVo’s Personalized Content Discovery platform to “enable personalization” and recommendation features on its newest, cloud-based connectivity platform, Altice One, TiVo said in a news release Dec. 20. The Personalized Content Discovery platform combines TiVo’s personalized search and recommendations with its conversational voice search functionality, TiVo said.

Altice USA had already been a TiVo licensee through its Suddenlink Communications division, which had become a TiVo licensee prior to being bought by Altice last year. Altice also bought Cablevision Systems last year, and Cablevision and Suddenlink were combined to form Altice USA, the fourth-largest cable TV operator in the U.S.

Under the new, expanded deal, Altice USA will also continue to use TiVo’s i-Guide interactive program guide and Gateway DVR solution that will “provide personalized recommendations and deep integration with over-the-top” (OTT) content, TiVo said.

“Today’s services, product and intellectual property announcement with Altice USA demonstrates the value of TiVo’s innovations as service providers deploy next-gen, cloud-based systems for the evolving video market,” Enrique Rodriguez, TiVo new CEO and president, said in the announcement.

He added: “The breadth of TiVo’s offerings provide our customers with a comprehensive suite of solutions to enable services that drive further value.”

TiVo announced several other major deals in recent months, including a multi-year pact with Discovery Communications, announced Nov. 1, under which Discovery selected TiVo’s Audience Works for Marketing, an end-to-end inventory management and execution product suite designed to enable companies to drive ratings and viewership via audience-driven on-air promotions and cross-channel media plans, TiVo said at the time.

The product suite was designed to enable Discovery to “improve the process of efficiently finding and targeting new, lapsed, intermittent and prospective viewers to increase” total viewership of its TV networks and “drive consumer loyalty,” TiVo said. The pact also included the use of audience and analytics reports, which provides viewership data from TiVo’s Targeted Audience Delivery platform to better inform users about what TV shows their audiences viewed and are projected to watch, it said.

TiVo also this year renewed its existing product and intellectual property agreements with Liberty Global, TiVo announced in October. That extension provided Liberty Global with expanded access to TiVo’s patent portfolios and covered all Liberty Global subsidiaries, TiVo said.