New TiVo Online Services Delayed

TiVo subscribers anxiously waiting for the day they can order movie tickets, or share Yahoo pictures on their television sets, may have to wait a little while longer.

On Thursday, TiVo announced the availability of new TiVo online services for its more than 300,000 subscriber base with broadband connections, but also reported that many of those people won't get these new features for at least another two months, as the distribution of the required software updates is a "progressive rollout".

Subscribers with a digital subscriber line (DSL) or a cable connection to the internet -- of which TiVo estimates at approximately one-third of its more than 1 million stand-alone series 2 box owners -- will soon be able to access the new TiVo online services. These new services include watching trailers and purchasing movie tickets online, sharing Yahoo pictures with other Yahoo members, internet radio feeds, as well as local weather and traffic conditions.

The new TiVo online services will be included in the monthly $12.95 or lifetime $299 subscriber fees, once the subscriber has downloaded and updated the TiVo software. Especially eager TiVo owners can attempt to expedite their machine's download of the software by going to a page on the TiVo.com website called "software priority request", but the new functions may still not arrive for several weeks.