BERLIN—Xperi has officially launched its independent media platform—TiVo OS—and announced that Vestel, one of the top three European TV producers, will launch “Powered by TiVo Smart TVs” as part of a multi-year, multi-country, multi-million-unit agreement, with the first units expected to ship in 2023.
The announcement comes nearly two months after Xperi announced its acquisition of Oslo-based Vewd, which Xperi said would expand its TiVo presence in Europe. Vewd inked a deal with Vestel in 2021 to integrate its Operator TV OS (which doesn’t require a set-top box) into Vestel smart TV sets.
Distinguishing itself from other smart TV platforms that are built around “walled gardens,” Xperi describes TiVo OS as a “first-of-its-kind neutral platform, aimed at giving original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) significantly more control over the user experience and helping consumers cut through the clutter of streaming and linear content options with simplified, universal discovery to consumers.”
Jon Kircher, CEO of Xperi estimates that 40% of the worldwide smart TV market wants a “truly independent platform.
“Today, nearly 30 million households worldwide are powered by TiVo through an array of CTV and other partners,” he said. “We are pleased to have signed our first smart TV partnership for TiVo OS, our embedded operating system and media platform for smart TVs, underlying progress toward our goal of becoming a leading independent TV OS platform supplier.”
Turan Erdoğan, CEO of Istanbul-based Vestel said the company’s mission is to be the ‘retailer of retailers,’ “offering a wide range of choices to its customers in terms of Smart TV OS platforms.”
“TiVo, and its parent company Xperi, have a long history of both championing great customer experiences and creating entertainment ecosystems,” Erdoğan said. “We believe that the industry will benefit from a partner-oriented, independent media platform that provides the necessary scale, both in technology and content to satisfy the global media landscape. TiVo has a proven track record in making it easy for consumers to find, watch and enjoy the content they love. We’re excited about partnering with TiVo to provide a European-focused Vestel Smart TV Powered by TiVo OS to provide consumers the experience they want.”
Zperi acquired TiVo for $3 billion three years ago with the intention of expanding the TiVo OS into the growing connected TV market, currently dominated by Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Google TV/Android. CTV advertising is estimated to grow from $16 billion to $36 billion by 2026, Xperi said.
Xperi says its “TV Powered by TiVo” can deliver better viewer engagement than its competitors due to its “unbiased content-first user experience where live hybrid TV and streaming services are fully integrated, empowering consumers to intuitively discover TV shows and movies across their favorite streaming apps in a free, familiar, and frictionless experience by selecting the streaming services that are most relevant to them.”
