Bear Analyst Feels Good About DirecTV and TiVo Renewed Relationship

Bear Stearns was out with a new report Friday suggesting DirecTV (DTV) may warm to the idea of renewing ties with TiVo (TIVO) under Liberty Media’s ownership (LINTA), leaving Murdoch’s NDS (NNDS) venture behind. Or perhaps choosing to upsell a TiVo solution.

We believe the new DTV management may be more amenable to renewing a relationship with TiVo. The TiVo HD-DVR offers several advantages over the NDS DVRs, including better user interface, wireless access can provide quasi-VOD service, ad revs would be incremental, and TiVo’s HD-DVR is already cheaper than NDS’ HD-DVR.

Though there haven’t been any recent DirecTV TiVo hardware introductions, the two companies are currently collaborating to support existing DirecTiVo customers. And while both camps have a reciprocal do-not-sue clause in effect, DTV’s recent acquisition of ReplayTV’s intellectual property muddies the issue - and could give them leverage in negotiating terms. We shall see…