TV Ad Technology Vendor Profile: TiVo -- According to Forrester Research, TiVo's digital video recorders are popular, in part because they allow consumers to skip commercials easily. But even as its users gnaw away at television's traditional business model, TiVo offers advertisers an alternative. Behind its network of consumer devices, TiVo has deployed an advertising system that is based on voluntary viewing of long-form video advertisements. Today, the system has a limited reach of approximately 3 million subscribers and, unlike the vendors of most other ad systems, TiVo sells its own inventory. Both the reach and the sales model for these ads are likely to change in light of TiVo's recently announced deal with Comcast.
From my vantage point, few areas are evolving as rapidly and with such profound implications as the space sector. For decades, satellites were essentially fixed hardware – powerful, expensive, but ultimately immutable once launched. That paradigm is undergoing a transition driven by Software-Defined Satellites (SDS). A recent market study by ABI Research underscores this transition, painting a picture of technological advancement and a fundamental reshaping of global connectivity, security, and national interests. LEO SDS Market Development The core concept behind SDS is deceptively simple yet revolutionary: decouple the satellite's capabilities from its physical hardware. Instead of launching a satellite designed for a single, fixed purpose (like broadcasting specific frequencies to a specific region), SDS allows operators to modify, upgrade, and reconfigure a satellite's functions after it's in orbit, primarily through software updates. The ABI Research report highlights ...