What Makes TiVo a ‘Content-First’ OS
Xperi differentiates its TiVo OS as a “content-first” system, but in terms of design decisions, discovery layer, and the way users experience it in its various guises from OTT to CTV to SVOD to AVOD and FAST to automotive, what does this really mean? TiVo’s VP Content Strategy & Business Development Briana Larsen explains how TiVo works to unify and personalize the viewing and discovery experience by making the content more visible than the service of origin in this clip from her keynote fireside chat with Streaming Media Editor-in-Chief Steve Nathans-Kelly at Streaming Media Connect 2026.
What ‘Content-First’ Means
Nathans-Kelly notes, “Xperi describes TiVo as a content-first OS.” He believes that’s good branding, but in terms of design decisions, he asks Larsen to explain what that means.
Larsen confirms this description and says, “We put the content in front of the consumer, not the app in front of the consumer. So wherever that content’s coming from, whether it’s FAST, whether it’s SVOD, whether it’s TVOD, we lead with the content, not the source that it’s coming from. When you click on an asset in any of our experiences, whether it’s automotive on a paid TV set-top box or our connected TVs, we show you where that asset is available to watch across different services. So it’s all unified into one asset and the available places you can watch.” That way, the consumer can decide where they want to watch a show or movie, which gives them a more personalized experience, she explains. They can toggle their services and settings to show only recommendations from certain services in their TiVo carousels.
Consistency Across TiVo Platforms
Nathans-Kelly asks, “And when it comes to this unified TiVo experience, you’re on CTV, you’re on FAST, you’re on paid TV and you’re on automotive. Do you try to maintain as much consistency as you can across those different platforms but at the same time try to optimize it for the fundamental differences between them?”
Larsen points to TiVo’s FAST offering, TiVo Channels, which is accessible across all of the company’s platforms: automotive, connected TVs, paid TV set-top boxes, etc. The look and feel does remain consistent, but how much is visible depends on the platform; “in automotive, we have one carousel visible and an app row. On our connected TVs, we have, obviously the homescreen is the most valuable real estate on a TV. We have much larger inventory to work with. We have a homepage hero banner there. So we can do a lot more than we can on automotive just based off of the nature of the platform,” she notes. “If you use our service in a BMW and you have one of our TVs at home, you see a lot of similarities, and I think over time you’ll start to see that come together.”
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