TiVo announced today that Verizon will pay it a total of $250.4 million in compensation through July 2018 in order to settle an ongoing patent dispute between the two companies. The companies will also be looking at future combined distribution of streaming video services through Redbox, of which Verizon has a key stake, and TiVo’s DVRs.
Also part of the deal is a cross-licensing arrangement involving all patents that were involved in the pending dispute between the two. The litigation between the companies involved DVR technology, specifically as it related to Verizon’s FiOS service, and features for that service including time delayed viewing, simultaneous recording and viewing, and multimedia content sharing among TiVo subscribers.
TiVo had previously been successful in similar actions taken against other companies, including DISH Network and EchoStar. This deal is likely a case of everybody wins, since Verizon ensures that it won’t face any injunctions against the use of any technologies involved, and it sounds like it could even potentially spin into greater product integration between the two companies down the road, which could provide financially beneficial to both.
As early as last year, TiVo’s windfalls from patent disputes were helping it compensate for losses in terms of consumer revenue, but as of its last quarterly results, subscriptions were on the rise. This deal seems to lay the groundwork for additional future potential partnerships that could help subscriber numbers continue to grow.