TiVo Culls It Some Cable

11:55 AM -- TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) made some progress this week with its bid to win more distribution deals with MSOs and help shore up its eroding subscription base.

Although TiVo's existing deals with major MSOs Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and Cox Communications Inc. will be vital to the DVR company's future, this week's tally involved smaller game that TiVo's chasing through its partnership with Evolution Broadband LLC , a Colorado-based firm that's pitching digital video systems to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cable operators.

The first was with Compton Communications of Canada, which is in line to offer TiVo's broadband-connected, CableCARD-capable HD-DVRs, marking the first MSO north of the border to take advantage of the Evolution-TiVo offering. (See Canadian MSO Fires Up TiVo/Evolution Combo.)

 ...TVMax of Houston, Texas, has also jumped on the Evolution-TiVo partnership with the offering of TiVo HD-DVRs outfitted with Evolution's own CableCARD, which uses the Conax conditional access system. TVMax is already using Evolution's Digital Terminal Adapter (DTA) devices for an all-digital conversion the operator completed in May 2009. (See CableLabs Blesses Evolution's CableCARD .)

TVMax doesn't have a legacy VoD system, but it will be using the TiVo devices to deliver on-demand services over high-speed broadband connections. The operator, which specializes in serving multiple-dwelling units (MDUs), claims to have about 90,000 passings.

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