After months of delay, a TiVo OS-powered smart TV under the JVC brand has finally hit the market.
Turkish design manufacturer Vestel has begun shipping the TVs through select retailers in the Czech Republic ahead of a wider launch European launch planned for 2024. Jon Kirchner, chief executive officer of TiVo’s parent company, Xperi, confirmed the launch on the company’s third-quarter earnings call last Monday.
TiVo OS LED smart TVs are available on JVC’s website, which lists units ranging in size from 32 to 55-inch models.
These are Xperi’s first smart TVs powered by TiVo and part of a move to further expand into the smart TV arena. The company has been working towards branching into the smart TV realm, attempting to take on Roku as a competitor. However, the company entered the market late and has fallen two years behind its original timeline to release merchandise, giving TiVo a significant disadvantage in an already heavily saturated market with well-established smart TV brands like Google TV, Roku, Fire TV, and others.
“Within Media Platform, we’re pleased to share that Vestel has begun shipping smart TVs powered by TiVo onto the JVC brand to retailers initially in the Czech Republic,” said Kirchner, according to Light Reading. “Production is now underway for additional brands with expected shipments to multiple European countries in the coming weeks, consistent with the rollout we’ve been expecting.”
Vestel makes TVs under brands such as Panasonic, JVC, Hitachi, and Toshiba. It also makes Finlux for Scandinavia, Telefunken for Germany, and Bush in the UK. The company partnered with TiVo in August of 2022 and planned an initial smart TV debut in early 2023, but it was postponed when Xperi signed a second TV partner for its initial launch in Europe.
TiVo has yet to say which manufacturer will be behind the North American market scheduled for 2024. The company has a deal with Sharp and agreements with two unnamed partners but has yet to confirm how that launch will play out.
Kirchner said TiVo’s rollout plans with Xperi will meet or exceed its goal to have 7 million “active” smart TVs running on the TiVo OS by the end of 2025.