In a shocking upset, TiVo scored an Interactive Television Emmy at the AFI Digital Content Festival. Actually, is anyone really surprised TiVo took home top honors? ABC also picked up an Emmy for their experimental web streaming platform. Awards will be handed out at the Creative Arts Awards Ceremony in LA on August 19.

This year’s Interactive Television Emmy Awards recognize original interactive television programming content, applications and services that have been deployed in the United States between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006 and that have demonstrated creative excellence. “TiVo was the very first offering in the DVR space and it is great that they are still leading the way,” said Brian Seth Hurst, Governor of the Television Academy’s Interactive Media Peer Group. “The TiVo service is certainly impressive in both its offering and user experience and meets the standard of excellence. It’s easy to see why the voters deemed it worthy of the Emmy.”

Looks like at least one telco is picking up TiVo as an ally against the cable companies…

TiVo says: Beginning this week, BellSouth and TiVo will launch the first of a variety of co-marketing initiatives that leverage product synergies between BellSouth FastAccess DSL and TiVo in order to drive additional distribution of the respective services. Through the agreement with TiVo, select FastAccess DSL subscribers will receive special pricing on the TiVo box and service. Although specific marketing tactics were not disclosed, TiVo and BellSouth will leverage each other’s marketing efforts in key Southeastern markets. They will also offer special incentives to customers who subscribe to both services. “BellSouth is excited to offer TiVo’s unique broadband applications to our FastAccess DSL customers,” said Joey Schultz, vice president of marketing for BellSouth Retail Markets. TiVo’s home media features allows subscribers to receive broadband delivered video and view personal music and photos on the TV set not just the PC.

Never enough time…

• Time Warner Cable, Raleigh refuses to provide CableCARD for TiVo? (TiVo Blog)
• Amazon to launch movie download service next month? (Hacking Netflix)
• TiVo takes on Nielsen in providing granular advertising info. (TiVo Lovers)
• Motorola acquires video-on-demand company Broadbus Technologies. (Boston Globe)
• AM radio is still kicking. (LA Times)

Press Release: TiVo Showcases Increase Consumer Interaction and Help Advertisers Reach Fast- Forwarding Viewers

Sprite, America’s #1 lemon-lime soft drink and TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced a partnership that will feature a cutting-edge interactive advertisement on a TiVo Showcase. Beginning July 24th and running for two weeks, the Showcase will feature a part of Sprite’s “subLYMONal” campaign. This is Sprite’s first interactive advertising run on the TiVo platform.

The TiVo Showcase allows brand marketers to better engage consumers in a deeper, more involved dialogue through long form entertainment content. Sprite’s “subLYMONal” ads will have a “Gold Star Sponsorship” on TiVo Central. Viewers can follow a link to a Showcase where they can view Sprite ads and then, using TiVo’s Trick Play features, find out how to use Sprite “subLYMONal Codes.” TiVo also displays “interactive tags” in Sprite’s advertising as it appears on TiVo DVRs, allowing viewers to pause television and click-through to Sprite’s TiVo Showcase to view more Sprite content, without missing even a second of the TV show they were watching.

“TiVo has the only interactive advertising solution dedicated to DVR viewing and we are excited to add Sprite to our growing list of interactive advertising partners,” said Davina Kent, Vice President, National Advertising Sales at TiVo. “Providing the only platform for DVR-ready creative, TiVo is helping advertisers overcome commercial fast-forwards with unique and exciting advertisements that allow them to further connect with their target audience through the television and increase the overall awareness of the brand.”

“SubLYMONal” advertisements will feature special codes embedded in the content and only revealed if viewed in slow motion that can be entered at the brand’s new website, www.subLYMONal.com. The site allows people to interact with the advertising and provides different ways for consumers to create their own “subLYMONal” experiences.
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Who am I to overlook a TiVo-related human interest story? This week’s Entrepreneur column in Business Week profiles Kiva.org, a peer-to-peer microlending service, co-founded by TiVo alum Matt Flannery.

What the article doesn’t mention is that at least one other former TiVo employee is involved in Kiva and has relocated to Africa. HME maestro Carl Haynes of apps.tv, Word Smith, and WordGrid fame is on the ground in Uganda. You can keep up with his experiences at Carl’s Big Adventure.

Business Week says: Kiva got started as an experiment after Stanford Business School students Matt and Jessica Flannery traveled to East Africa to review projects for the microlender Village Enterprise Fund. Matt Flannery knew of web sites such as Prosper.com and Zopa.com let folks in the U.S. and Europe extend personal loans to one another. Why not globalize it? Within a year the couple got the site up and running. Matt quit his day job as an application developer at TiVo Inc. and recruited former PayPal executive Premal Shah to help run it. Kiva, which is Swahili for “agreement” or “unity,” is harnessing the power of social networking to support microenterprise in the developing world.

(Thanks to Cassidy Napoli for his research assistance!)

Never enough time…

• Multistream CableCARDs (CC 1.0+ aka M-Card) expected soon. (HD Beat)
• Better Business Bureau rates TiVo as “unsatisfactory.” (TV Predictions)
• Samsung’s Blu-ray player comes factory-misconfigured. (Engadget)
• NBC new season preview DVD available to Netflix subscribers. (Hacking Netflix)
• UPnP specs updated. (eHomeUpgrade)

TiVo has notified both the FCC and cable operators that CableCARD compliant HD Series3 units are currently being tested and should be released to retail… soon!

Letter says: The TiVo Series3 HD DVR product supports up to two CableCARD decoders. This product acts as two independent single stream UDCP CableCARD hosts within one set top box. It can also be configured to operate as a single CableCARD device.

This product is currently being tested by a small number of consumers in cable markets across the country, and will be generally available in retail stores soon. Thus, we wanted to ensure that you are aware of this product in time to make any necessary preparations to support customers who request two CableCARD decoders for their TiVo Series3 HD DVR.

Related stories:

• TiVo Series3 Pictures and Specs 
• TiVo Series3 Release Date Poll
• TiVo Series3 Pricing and Timing