The working relationship between Comcast and TiVo will finally get off the ground as full marketing efforts are about to launch in the greater Boston area, according to Multichannel News on Wednesday. The launch is a testing ground for a wider deployment of the TiVo-based Comcast DVRs nationwide.

At the quarterly earnings report, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers said that customers will be able to pay an additional US$2.95/month for the TiVo enabled service. These DVRs have been in testing in selected customer homes, and Rogers said that "full marketing efforts will begin shortly in the greater Boston area."

Currently, Comcast customers in Boston pay US$16.94/month for their Comcast DVRs.

"We are very excited by the emphasis that Comcast has placed on this product within its organization and their plans to aggressively market it at a $2.95 up-charge as well as through packaged bundles and win-back offers," Mr. Rogers said. "Further, we are pleased with Comcast’s plans to promote and market the value of the TiVo experience, which will leverage many of their marketing assets including cross-channel TV."

Mr. Rogers noted that their own TiVo customers, also connected to the Internet and able to also access services such as the Amazon Unbox, which has 15,000 titles available, has been helpful in slowing the customer turnover rate. "Importantly, we are finding that TiVo’ broadband content offerings have strengthened our relationship with consumers as churn is significantly less for broadband-connected users," Rogers said.

For the quarter, TiVo had US$75.5M in revenue compared to $66M for the same quarter a year ago. Their net loss declined from $11.1M to $8.2M. TiVo stock jumped Thursday to US$7.50, up about 25 percent from Wednesday.