TiVo to launch its own streaming platform?

A story kinda went under the radar recently. At least, I didn't notice it until late this week. And it may be a big story. We'll see. So, what is the news?

Xperi has purchased Vewd.

Okay, I can hear the collective "huh" right now. So let me explain why this might matter.

Xperi owns a company called TiVo. Yes, TiVo. You certainly know who that is. And TiVo is more than just a DVR for antenna or cable. The TiVo Stream is an Android TV based streaming device, though the interface looks like TiVo.

What about Vewd? Never heard of them? Well, maybe you have. And maybe you've used it, but under its old name of Opera TV.

I've used Opera TV with some early smart TVs. A lot of smart TVs used to use Opera TV. At one time, Sony, LG, and Samsung used Opera TV. My new Sony now uses Android TV. LG now uses webOS, and Samsung uses Tizen. So Opera TV lost a lot of TV brands it was on. I must say that I was never particularly impressed with Opera TV. Whether it's the hardware or the OS, I don't know. The overall experience was poor. Roku was a welcome change for me.

Well, Opera TV is now Vewd and Vewd is now owned by the same company that owns TiVo.

Does this mean that TiVo will be dropping Android and moving to its Vewd OS? I don't know, but unless there's simply some technology it wants to get to by gutting Vewd, I expect they'll try to launch a fifth major platform. Or more accurately transform Vewd into one of the top five streaming platforms. I think they'd do better to attempt to get on equal footing with Tizen and webOS first, then shoot for the stars.

If TiVo does decide to move to its own Vewd platform, I'm not holding out hope it will be a success. TiVo Stream is an inferior product to Chromecast with Google TV, despite running essentially the same OS. They may be better serviced getting it on a better piece of hardware.

Either way, I'll give it a look when it comes out. Whether or not it turns into anything more than "a look" I don't know. If it succeeds, I'll have another option in my Streaming Life. If it doesn't, then it's business as ususal.