At last, some fighting words from TiVo

“It’s a bloody annoyance and it’s a damn shame, but it’s out of my hands,” said Hybrid chief executive Robbee Minicola today, commenting on Sky TV’s ongoing refusal to provide onscreen listings for its free-to-air channel, Prime.

Ms Minicola (pictured) is in town today for the Planet2010 communications conference.

I caught up with her, and TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis (right), very briefly before their presentation (the state broadcaster  paid $A8 million third of Hyrbid, the Australasian licensee for TiVo; Seven Media owns the rest).

Surely Ms Minicola must be disappointed that TVNZ is delivering its new Heartland channel exclusively to Sky TV?

The move cold-shouldered TiVo and other Freeview partners, but at least could have been seen as a chance to horse-trade: that is, to grab the Prime TV listings that are absent from TiVo’s onscreen guide, hobbling its useability, in exchange for Heartland?

Mr Ellis and Ms Minicola both said that horse trading is continuous. “John [Sky TV chief executive John Fellet] will do it when he’s ready”, said Ms Minicola.

I expressed dubiousness that Mr Fellet would ever voluntarily hand over Prime’s listings (his official excuse is that TiVo doesn’t feature on Nielsen’s viewing panel yet).

When I spoke to Mr Fellet last week, he said TiVo listings were not even raised in the Heartland conversation.

Ms Minicola again called the free-to-air Prime a minority channel, with only around 4% ratings share.

And I countered that it Prime was huge for event viewing, such as free-to-air rugby, and hit shows like Top Gear.

I was beginning to wonder if the Aussie TiVo boss hand any grasp on the NZ market.

But as Mr Ellis rose to take the stage, she added the analysis that opens this article.

More content on the way
Incidentally, some brighter news: TiVo is due to boost its ondemand broadband movie service, Caspa, by 100 titles by Easter. 10% to 20% will be new releases. 40 TV series will also be added.

Today, there are 360 (mostly library) movies and 160 TV series available for TiVo’s Caspa download service. Microsoft's Xbox Live and Apple's iTunes/Apple TV have an almost identikit line-up, but add HD/720p download options - although unlike TiVo (for Telecom customers at least) their data is metered.

A promised tie-up with Sony's multi-label BanditFM all-you-can-eat download service has yet to eventuate.

Apple spokesman John Marx told NBR his company would like to offer more movies. The hold-up is caused by studios jealously (if short-sightedly) guarding their DVD and TV revenue rights.