TiVo has indicated it will enter the North American smart television set market, announcing a “multi-year, multi-million-unit agreement” with Sharp that will see sets start to ship in 2024 beginning in Europe. The move to populate the TV ecosystem with hardware running Xperi’s TiVo OS pits the company against an entrenched group of smart TV competitors that includes Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Google TV, Roku, Samsung Tizen and LG Electronics’ webOS. Added to those is the Comcast and Charter Communications Xumo brand, and also Telly, which offers free TVs supported by ads.

After seeding the market in Europe, TiVo parent Xperi “plans to break into the North American smart TV market next year,” reports Light Reading, explaining that Xperi “has danced around the idea of expanding its smart TV initiative into North America” during recent quarterly earnings calls, and now confirms it will do so with multiple manufacturing partners.

According to Statista, Sharp is in the top 10 percent of North American TV manufacturers, albeit in the lower quadrant, but the company is a leading brand in Japan where the company is based.

The Desk reports Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner telling investors, “Sony will soon incorporate TiVo’s content and search discovery technology into their lineup of Google TV-powered television sets.”

In announcing the Sharp deal, Xperi says it plans to drive not only demand for TiVo-powered sets but television viewership in general with a “simplified, universal discovery” system that helps users find content amidst “the clutter of streaming and linear content options.”

Xperi, an American company that licenses technology IP, acquired TiVo for $109 million in July 2022. In September, Xperi said the Turkey-based Vestel would be the first company to manufacture smart TVs with the TiVo OS for the European market. Products from that agreement are expected to ship this holiday season.

Light Reading says “Xperi has also struck a deal with a third, yet-unnamed TV original equipment manufacturing (OEM) partner to integrate the TiVo OS.”

While Xperi’s TiVo TV initiative to date “is largely focused on retail … the company has also looked into a model in which TiVo-powered TVs could be distributed by operator partners,” writes Light Reading, explaining “that concept was originally explored by Vewd, the video software company that Xperi acquired in 2022.”