The TiVo personal video recorder is finally coming to Australia, but can TiVo be trusted to look after the interests of viewers rather than the media giants?

Can you trust your TiVo to be loyal when it's in bed with a television network?

TiVo has announced a partnership with Australia's Seven Network to bring the iconic personal video recorder to Australia next year, allowing viewers to pause live high definition TV and well as fast-forward ads.

TiVo's biggest competition in Australia comes from the few devices compatible with the IceTV electronic program guide. Media center computers and PVRs such as the impressive Beyonwiz DP-S1 can match, if not surpass, the features of a TiVo when combined with IceTV's EPG and PIMP remote scheduling service. Both IceTV and TiVo have also indicated plans for an Australian video on demand service.

IceTV's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness - it isn't affiliated with a television network. As a result it has no master to answer to, but it's also under legal attack from the Nine Network, which claims IceTV is infringing its copyright of the programming schedule. There's also the danger that Seven and Nine will do a deal, exchanging Nine's EPG data for the TiVo in return for Seven's EPG data for the Foxtel iQ PVR (Foxtel and Nine are both part owned by the Packer family). With such a deal done, they might join forces to crush IceTV from both a legal and marketing perspective.

If Seven really wanted to do the right thing, it would have come to IceTV's aid - which would have had the added bonus of really annoying the Packer clan. Still, aligning itself with IceTV would have only give Seven control over the EPG, whereas aligning itself with TiVo gives Seven control over the actual hardware as well.

In the US, TiVo isn't afraid to exert its influence over what its users watch and how they watch it. For example, they have the ability to force the box to record certain shows and lock advertisements so they can't be fast forwarded. Australians are embracing PVRs to get away from such behaviour, but buying an Australian TiVo will leave them at the mercy of both TiVo and the Seven Network.

Will TiVo be the saviour of Australian television, or will it just enforce the status quo? Time will tell.

Of course the other big news this week is that the hamstrung Apple TV media player is finally showing signs of life, with Apple adding YouTube access and a 160GB hard drive - but getting into bed with GooTube might backfire on Steve Jobs. Read my take on the Apple/GooTube deal here.