TiVo Inc is developing a new digital video recorder for satellite TV provider DirecTV, rekindling a strained relationship and potentially opening the door to boosting its subscribers.
The companies said on Wednesday that they had extended the current agreement. It now includes the development, marketing and distribution of a new high-definition DirecTV DVR featuring the TiVo service, with the product's launch expected in the second half of 2009.
DirecTV was once the biggest source of new subscribers to TiVo's television recording service. But the relationship soured in 2005 when DirecTV, the top US satellite TV broadcaster, said it would no longer market TiVo's set-top boxes and would use its own system made by NDS Group Plc.