TiVo Inc., a maker of digital video recorders, said Wednesday it had acquired six U.S. patents from International Business Machines Corp. covering interactive television, boosting TiVo's total patent portfolio to 76.
The acquired patents cover audience measurement, the integration of Internet and TV, automatic scheduling of recording, content screening, information search and electronic program guide enhancements, TiVo said.
TiVo, which makes its own video recorders and offers its service to satellite television users, did not disclose the terms of the deal. An IBM spokesman said the patents had originally been filed for a now-defunct IBM digital video product group.
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TiVo spokesman David Shane said the company "placed great emphasis on developing and protecting our intellectual property, and we believe these patents will help us toward that end."
TiVo's recorders store TV shows on a computer hard drive, allowing viewers to pause live television, skip over commercials and record dozens of hours of programming.
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On Tuesday, TiVo, based in Alviso, California, extended its relationship with DirecTV Group Inc., which has been TiVo's biggest source of new subscribers.
Earlier in March, TiVo won a contract to supply its digital video recording technology to No. 1 U.S. cable TV operator Comcast Corp.














