TiVo co-founders about to release new TV streaming box called QPlay
TiVo co-founders Michael Ramsay and Jim Barton are about to release a new TV companion device that aims to combine video discovery and curation with smart TV functionality. Dave Zatz recently spotted an FCC filing …
Context & Ripple Effects
Michael Ramsay and Jim Barton, who founded TiVo, are preparing to ship QPlay, a TV companion device pitched as combining video discovery and curation with smart TV functionality. Blogger Dave Zatz spotted an FCC filing for the product ahead of release — the regulatory step that typically precedes a US retail launch.
The story traveled quickly: Digital Trends and Digital Media Wire both picked up the Gigaom report within days. With no pricing or partner announcements yet public, the founders' identity is the main signal — two DVR-era veterans betting that a dedicated discovery layer, rather than another recorder, is what living-room TV still lacks.
First-order effects
- Ramsay and Barton re-enter consumer TV hardware under the QPlay brand, with the FCC filing indicating a launch window measured in weeks, not quarters.
Second-order effects
- QPlay's curation-first positioning puts it in competition with the default interfaces smart TV manufacturers ship themselves — if viewers adopt a separate discovery device, TV makers lose control of the home screen where apps and recommendations live.
Third-order effects
- If a small team can carve out a niche purely on discovery and curation, the structural lesson for the industry is that the value in connected TV may sit in the software layer above streaming services rather than in the boxes or subscriptions beneath it.
The trend: Connected TV is shifting from owning recordings to curating streams, and the TiVo founders' QPlay is one bet that a dedicated discovery-and-curation layer can become its own product category.