pvrwire.com — Microsoft, Yahoo and Google are the big names on the internet. With internet video becoming so popular and the internet heading into the living room and onto our TVs one of these companies is going to want to buy TiVo. With about 4 Million subscribers TiVo could be an excellent investment and secure one of these companies a place in the living room
Oct 27, 2006 View in Crawl 4
jerichoOct 27, 2006
TiVo has offered Lifetime subscription transfers to their Series 1 customers. I was one of them and transferred my subscription over to a Series 2 when they came out. Now that Series 3 is out, TiVo has offered again to transfer Lifetime Subscriptions, albeit for a cost of $199. It's great at getting those early adopters to purchase the new machines. And for the true TiVo fan, there are no alternatives that are "good enough."If an Internet company were to purchase them, I would think Yahoo! would be at the top of the list. They already carry Yahoo! weather, movie listings, traffic and photo slideshow content. That said, I think there's a stronger chance that they will partner with other companies like the much rumored movie download service in partnership with Netflix.
lynxproOct 27, 2006
As a TiVo owner/subscriber, I don't want TiVo to remain independent. I want Apple to purchase the company outright, or enter into a joint ownership of TiVo with Google. And here's why:1. Economies of scale. The main problem that has kept TiVo from being profitable for the past three years is that it does not have the ability to drive down component costs. If Apple owned TiVo, it could acquire the necessary hard drives and other components at a much lower price that what TiVo is able to do. This would drive down prices and allow TiVo to keep Windows Media Center PCs at bay as well as encouraging more cable tv subscribers to use the TiVo branded boxes instead of the cable company offerings.2. Apple could just release a specialized Mac Mini to replace the expensive Series3 units. Add a decent videocard and two CableCard 1.0/2.0 slots to the Mac Mini, and it would be far more powerful than the existing Series3 TiVo units, and cheaper.3. An Apple owned TiVo could cancel the monthly fees associated with delivering the program guide data. It could be integrated into the .Mac services. Or, the costs could be completely negated by Google using the viewer aggregate data shared to increase their own advertising revenue.It just doesn't make since for TiVo to remain independent. In fact, it is detrimental to its users and the long term viability of the company itself (not to mention the shareholders).
lynxproOct 27, 2006
Lifetime users do not cost TiVo money. That's a misnomer. We the lifetime subscribers are assets to the company because we tend to be the TiVo-faithful. The higher the number of TiVo boxes out there, the more valuable the aggregate viewing data is to them in terms of selling the information to the Nielsens as well as the tv networks and cable channels.If TiVo were wise, they'd continue the lifetime service option. After all, one can purchase a cell phone without a service contract; it just costs more.
st1nkf1ngerOct 27, 2006
Gotcha.. Thanks for the info..
dmorelOct 27, 2006
tivo's relationship with DTV is for all intents and purposes over. They are also working the lawsuit which they won, and is now in appeals with Dish through the courts. If they ultimately prevail there, it will be a big help to their cash flow.More interestingly though is the deals they have signed with comcast and now cox to deliver their UI on EXISTING cable co DVR hardware. My understanding is that the port to Motorola boxes is complete and in testing, will be rolled out early next year to comcast and presumably those few Cox markets that use the Moto STB's. Once they port to the Scientific Atlanta boxes, they will be able to supply their UI to a fairly large number of cable co subs. The leasing of their UI and service, coupled with the unbelievably sharp targeted advertising they have available to them is where the Tivo revenue stream to support them will come. I don't think I'm ready to count them out for holding their own and achieving profitability yet. If there are problems with the cable co roll outs and/or they are not received as well as they could/should be (their UI and service is the gold standard of DVR) then we can talk buy out.
xstaticOct 28, 2006
And many of us are stuck with crippled Series 2 TiVo units from DirectTV that can't transfer shows over the net! (or play mp3, view jpg, run SDK HME code, etc.)
stalky14Oct 28, 2006
Gack. I have a Scientific Atlanta DVR with Cox now, and a more poorly implemented DVR I've never seen. There is no 30 second skip. You can't trim channels from the guide. You can't start watching a currently recording show from the beginning without rewinding it first and then it drops you out to live when recording is finished, even though you haven't finished watching it yet. All DVR functions take place on a DVR "channel", which you have to tune off of when you're done. I could design a better user interface on my Commodore 64! It makes me long for my 1st generation Dish box again (and those are quite primitive by modern DVR standards). I'm experimenting with PC-based DVR software now (BeyondTV and GB-PVR), but getting all of the remote control and IR blast stuff to reliably coexist with the rest of my system is going to be a bitch.If it wasn't for that damn $15(?) a month service fee, I'd be all over Tivo. Personally, I think the subscription model is what has held Tivo back more than anything. People are way more choosy about recurring expenses than they are about one-off purchases.
drewclaytonOct 28, 2006
uh"It would give Google access to the millions of TiVo subscribers which are also from a different demographic to YouTube."lame, untrue statement