It seems Comcast and Tivo have a deal to make Comcast services available on new Tivo devices using some form of downloadable Conditional Access. All this should be seen in the light of the recent push by cable operators to have the Cablecard mandate on their boxed lifted. The details of the technology are sketchy; it may also be a proprietary DRM style approach.
TiVo and Comcast, which disclosed the agreement in an FCC filing dated July 14, didn’t go into explicit technical detail on how the non-CableCARD approach would work, though it’s possibile that the intended approach would use a downloadable version of video security. But they did note that Comcast will make the solution available to other cable operators “on commercially reasonable terms.”
The service is reported to include all of Comcast’s cable delivered services, but it is not explicit to which extent the UI and VOD libraries are running on the Tivo box.Time Warner and Cox are also working on an integration with Tivo. Cox will use an IP based approach similar as with it’s service for tablets.
Comcast, TiVo Working On Non-CableCARD Approach | Multichannel.
