Digital video recording pioneer TiVo Inc. is teaming up with an online video service to deliver Web-based programming to TiVo's broadband television boxes.
The deal with Brightcove Networks Inc., to be announced Wednesday, means some TiVo users will soon have not only TV shows to record, but also Internet-based videos from Brightcove's content partners.
Brightcove, a privately held Cambridge, Mass.-based startup, launched its video publishing service in November. Its technology gives established or small independent producers a way to create online videos and then syndicate them through Brightcove's distribution channels, of which TiVo has become the latest.
"This is the first partnership for us to get content directly to the TV set," said Brightcove's founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire.
Brightcove, which also has a deal with Time Warner Inc. to start distributing videos this summer on AOL's Web portal, says it so far has several hundred partners, including MTV's Teen Channel and National Lampoon Inc.'s TogaTV.com.
Allaire said TiVo and Brightcove would pick an as-yet-undisclosed set of Web-based programs to debut in June on TiVo's Internet-connected, Series 2 digital video recorders. The companies said the programs would be offered for free initially, but may carry advertising.
The two companies later plan to provide a way for content producers using Brightcove to have their material distributed to TiVo machines. The content providers could decide to charge for the content, the companies said.
Terms of the TiVo-Brightcove agreement were not disclosed.
The Internet-based videos will help Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo distinguish itself from rival DVR offerings from cable and satellite TV operators, said Josh Bernoff, an industry analyst at Forrester Research.
TiVo has said it is looking to add more video-on-demand features.