Bard Williams, Director, Partner, Retail & Intl. Marketing at TiVo
BayBrazil: How are you connected to Brazil?
Bard Williams: As a leader in Consumer Electronics products, we’re always looking for exciting emerging markets. For the past few years, I’ve also hosted Brazilian students from West Valley College and San Jose State University for an on-site tour and discussion to help them learn about how we do business in the US and abroad.
BayBrazil: What is keeping TiVo from offering its services in Brazil?
Bard Williams: We have so many opportunities for international expansion. Brazil continues to be on our “watch list” as HDTV and broadband/internet services become more pervasive there.
BayBrazil: TiVo has recently announced a partnership with Conax, a Norwegian company with offices in Brazil, Russia, India and China. Is TiVo headed to emerging markets?
Bard Williams: Absolutely. We continue to develop new partnerships that help us help our partners to deploy the best DVR/Entertainment experience anywhere. We also announced a major partnership with Virgin Media which will bring our solution to millions across the UK.
BayBrazil: What does differentiate Brazil from other emerging economies?
Bard Williams: Brazil has all the indicators of a bright future with a thriving economy, a huge and growing population, and a readiness to embrace the best of the world’s new technologies.
BayBrazil: Internet on TV. Is it fad or future? How really viable is web browsing on TV when most of us sit several feet away from the screen?
Bard Williams: The question is not really if, it’s when. Many connected devices are entering the home that can access content on the Internet. We believe in sticking to our knitting and enabling broadband entertainment that makes sense on TV. Ultimately, everyone will have many devices that can send/receive Internet content, not just connected TVs. They will choose the right tool for the right job.
BayBrazil: You are passionate about education, several of your books focus on helping teachers to use the internet and mobile devices in their work. What are latest technology trends for educators?
Bard Williams: The same as in the industry as a whole. We’ve moved from learning what’s inside a computer, to how to program a computer, to learning how to apply those programs to real-world problems. Today’s students need to know about capabilities, and build skills to allow them to make good decisions about what technology to use at any given time. The world is getting smaller and those that will be most successful will leverage technology to learn more about others and how to work with them.
