BERLIN—TiVo today unveiled significant enhancements to its TiVo OS media platform, expanding generative AI-powered content discovery experiences, more free streaming content, enhanced sports experiences, interactive commerce capabilities and platform optimizations that the company says could reduce costs for smart TV manufacturers.

TiVo, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xperi, also announced the appointment of Tal Bone as senior vice president and general manager of TiVo OS. Bone, who brings more than a decade of experience building and scaling global smart TV and entertainment platforms most recently served as vice president of global product and chief technology officer at VIDAA, Hisense's smart TV operating system.

The company made its announcements in advance of the the IFA 2026 tech show, which takes place Sept. 4-8 in Berlin.

Expanded TiVo Channels Offering
TiVo announced that it has added hundreds of new global and local FAST channels to its TiVO Channels platform and added a new mini guide for faster channel navigation and personalized content carousels that offer relevant programming based on viewers’ preferences.

TiVo has also enhanced sports discovery across search, recommendations and the home screen on its OS, allowing viewers to more easily discover, follow, and access live games and sporting events through improved surfacing of sports content and real-time event promotion directly within the TiVo OS experience.

And in a nod to expanding its presence overseas, particularly in Europe, TiVo also announced that its OS now supports DVB-I, a protocol that adds IP capability to the DVB standard. DVB-I enables broadcasters to deliver television content over the internet while simplifying access for consumers. The enhancement allows viewers to discover and watch local broadcast channels without requiring a traditional aerial or antenna.

TiVo has also significantly reduced the TiVo OS memory footprint, enabling deployment on devices with as little as 1 GB RAM and 4 GB eMMC. These improvements are designed to help reduce bill-of-material costs, allow for more efficient hardware configurations, and expand deployment opportunities across a wider range of smart TVs and connected entertainment devices, the company said.

AI Enhancements
TiVo is also collaborating with IRCODE in a partnership that now combines AI and computer vision technologies to recognize on-screen content and enable immediate viewer interaction on its OS, unlocking “new opportunities for commerce, content discovery, advertising and companion experiences, allowing consumers to engage with content in entirely new ways while creating new monetization opportunities for partners,” according to the company.

TiVo said it plans to implement the soon-to-be released AI-powered discovery product, Agent TiVo, which is designed to enable consumers to navigate entertainment through natural conversation and help them discover content more intuitively and efficiently. Rather than relying on traditional keyword searches, viewers will be able to describe what they're looking for and receive personalized recommendations and guidance, creating a richer and more engaging content discovery experience, the company said.

TOKYO--Japanese public broadcaster NHK has announced that it will begin broadcasting a new 8K channel via satellite by December. The network announced earlier this year that it had intended to do so in advance of its plans to broadcast the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics in the high res format. This follows speculation that Samsung will debut its first 8K consumer TV set at IFA later this month.

NHK is dubbing the format—which delivers 7680x4320 pixels with 22.2-channel audio—“BS8K,” a version of what it used to call “Super High Vision” which it had demonstrated at industry trade shows for the past decade. The network covered the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in 8K earlier this year and plans on providing approximately 12 hours of 8K content per day, according to RedShark News.

[Read: Is It Time To Think About 8K?]

Meanwhile, speculation is that Samsung plans to unveil its first 8K QLED consumer set at the German consumer electronics trade show IFA according to Tech Radar which added that the company had announced earlier this year that it had plans to launch 8K sets in 65-, 72- and 82-inch sizes. At the International CES earlier this year, Samsung demo-ed an 85-inch 8K set that uses artificial intelligence to deliver the high resolution format.