TiVo. the synonym for DVR is increasingly a footnote in a market it helped create. TiVo is down to 3 million subscribers. With more than 30 million DVR homes in the US, that’s less than 10% of the market.
How sad for TiVo, its two best business models at this point seem to be its fledgling data service and lawsuits. So far for TiVo though even when they win the lawsuits, as they have with DISH, the appeals process is endless.
Now it seems that if you’re a distributor of DVRs, you will be sued unless you have either partnered with or invested in TiVo and TV has filed patent infringement suits against Verizon and AT&T.
Comcast has invested in and “partnered” with TiVo, but so far the now years-long partnership with Comcast has yet to produce any Comcast TiVo DVRs anywhere but in New England. It seems like for the last four (or is it five?) years we’ve heard “testing” and “any time now” a service will be rolled out where you can get the benefits of TiVo with Comcast for an additional $5 over the $9.95 or so you’re already paying for DVR service. I’d pay it too. But nope. Still waiting.
TiVo’s on/off relationship with DirecTV has both helped TiVo greatly and hurt them badly as reflected in the chart below. The relationship is on again, but a new HD-TiVo for DirecTV has not rolled out yet (scheduled for this year).
Bill will probably update the chart when he gets back (it’s current through the April 30 quarter), but adding the net subscriber losses of 146,000 for the quarter ending July 31, won’t change the way the chart looks in a way you’d notice.
The problem is that the cable and satellite companies made it easier to use their own in-house options, and people have started using that instead of the TiVo service. In many ways, it’s been convenience over true technological evolution, but TiVo at least has its place in history as the first popular DVR.
“but so far the now years-long partnership with Comcast has yet to produce any Comcast TiVo DVRs”
That is simply incorrect. There are a number of subscribers with the Comcast TiVo DVR service, product of the Comcast TiVo partnership.
Sorry Brian, I should’ve clarified “but so far the now years-long partnership with Comcast has yet to produce any Comcsast TiVo DVRs anywhere but in New England”
Not exactly a wide rollout, plus, selfishly I’m 2,500 miles from New England. And sure there are a number of the DVRs, but that number is few, and not enough to come anywhere near stemming the net subscriber losses.
Someday when it is widely rolled out, It will be interesting to see how many Comcast DVR customers are willing to pay extra to get the TiVo DVR. I suspect most will be happy with what they have.
I have all ways wanted TIVO but it has only come out in Australia in the the last year or so , but TIVO in Australia works with “free to air tv” only No cable sat etc also no fees unles you want blockbuster rentels downloaed via network (Broadband) connection , it also can talk to your pc play divx etc the unit is HD rec 2 at once etc same Tivo logo i have a panasonic dvr/dvd rec already that works with “free to air bu only rec “SD” Tv have to wait for it to die (some how break thaks to my 18 month old sone wink wink).
I’m in the Boston area and have access to the Tivo DVR through Comcast but haven’t decided if it is worth the extra $5. My friend has it and she says the only difference is that it finds shows you might be interested in and records them. I watch too much TV already. ANyone have an opinion they would like to share?
No one should Tivo Chuck (unless they also watch it live). Oh yeah and poor Tivo and stuff.
I have the regular Comcast DVR and it works fine for me. I fail to see how a Comcast TiVo would be worth the extra money. DVR is DVR.
Kathy B, not sure. I think it really depends on how much you use the DVR. For normal playback, pausing live TV and recording of single episodes I think Comcast’s DVR is fine.
I am a long-time TiVo user, however currently my primary DVR is a Comcast HD-DVR. If the TiVo DVR for Comcast uses the TiVo program guide rather than Comcast’s I would definitely pay the $5 a month. In addition to better menus for finding shows to record, if you’re a heavy user of recording series rather than single episodes, TiVo works much better in terms of recording an episode only once.
With Comcast, there are many series where if you record it, watch it, and delete it, and another broadcast of the same episode comes on two days from now, it will record it. TiVo won’t.
I love tivo, i can forward through the commercials and see a one hour show in 45 minutes and i can see it whenever i want. to me, the greatest tv improvement of the century.
Linda: It sounds like you like DVRs, and maybe like that Tivo created a market for it, but you didn’t actually say why you like the Tivo product specifically over other DVRs, which really is what this is all about.
I have always found the Tivo menu system and search capabilities are significantly better presented and easier to use than any other DVR I have ever seen. Its new search cababilities allow you to do a swivel search on a show/actor/movie/whatever, allowing you to find other shows that the actors have been in, episode lists, similar programming, etcetera. Its ability to track show changes, channel changes, time changes, and repeats is fantastic. Tie it in with you Netflix subscription, and it just continues to amaze.
It might be a bit more per month than a standard DVR, but to me, standard DVR is like using a B&W TV set.
I would pay the extra 5$ a month to not have to sift though the crap my DVR records for the series recordings.
My wife and her reality show adiction causes the most problems. I can end up with more than 10 shows recorded in one day, all repeats of kendra, jon & kate etc..
If Tivo wants an answer to what is ailing it, it has nowhere to look but at its own failures in the market. When they came out with their first attempt at a HD-DVR they wanted to charge somewhere near $600 just for the equipment. A user can pay that or add $10 to their cable bill every month and get the same basic service.
Tivo’s biggest enemy has always been Tivo. The service is great, the business model is idiotic.
I have had the Comcast Tivo DVR since last November (live 30 minutes from Boston). I decided to get a DVR at that time and the website had the new option of a Tivo DVR so I selected it. It is definitely worth the extra $5 or so I’m paying per month. Everyone else I know has the regular Comcast DVR. I don’t know about elsewhere in the U.S., but around here the Comcast DVR has very few features on it.
With Tivo I can rate shows at different levels, save searches (such as searching for an actor across the guide), and it holds many more shows than the regular Comcast DVR of those of my friends, I’d say at least twice as much. It also has a bunch of other options such as a folder where shows go for several weeks after you delete them so that if you want to retrieve it (in the case where you accidentally deleted a show, or someone else did), you can. There is also an “On Demand” folder in my Tivo recordings list, which lists shows from On Demand that I’ve paused or recently watched (in other words, you don’t have to go back into On Demand to find them). As for the Tivo Suggestions, I don’t use them because most of the suggestions are shows that I am already watching (but then, I do watch a lot of TV!)
@Robert, I get the Tivo guide on my TV while other TVs in my house (with regular Comcast boxes) have the Comcast guide.
Never was a Tivo fan I LOVED ReplayTV before they had to remove the internet sharing and commercial skip. Honestly all the cable/SatTV DVR’s interfaces have sucked compared to the Tivo/ReplayTV system. The biggest thing that killed Replay and mortally wounded Tivo is HD and how they both handled it IMHO. And I am not even going to go into the restrictions and other crap that was thrown on top of them either.
I was shocked when I switched from DirecTV (with a Tivo brand DirecTiVo dual-tuner model) to cable with a generic off-the-shelf TiVo. The off-the-shelf TiVo had banner ads on the main screen, in every folder, every time you paused a show, and then again at the end of a show. You got these options:
“Delete this program”
“Don’t delete”
“Subscribe to Popular Mechanics”
Compared to my old TiVo, they added nothing but ads. And I had to call in and opt-out of their default privacy setting, which is “your TiVo will call home to TiVo central and send them logs of what you watch and when”.
Who’s TiVo working for now? Customers? Or their sponsors?
The main advantage of Tivo over cableco DVR’s is the software. My Verizon FIOS box is laggy and slow – every time you hit a button it has to call home to mama. (So much for the cloud.) The Tivo boxes (both Series 2 and HD) have great menu’s, zippy response, good playback. Finally, the Season Pass is the single most important innovation of Tivo.
TiVo has done at least one thing right…they have continued to upgrade and expand the capabilities of their machines right from the beginning. So needless to say thay can claim more than just being the first popular DVR on the market they are by far the BEST and absolute leader in DVR technology!! I have used the cable companies excuse for a DVR and they pale in comparision! They don’t have nearly the same options and/or capabilities that TiVo does let alone the ease at which you can use your TiVo! One of the greatest features of the TiVo is that it can be programmed remotely using the internet! So next time when you forgot to record the final episode of your favorite show before leaving home and you use your IPOD to program your TiVo while driving to the place that is not your home lets see how much you like that cable company DVR then!!!
It is tragic, but TiVo deserves to die. A customer has to fight both the service providers and TiVo to be able to use the TiVo these days. In 2003 I fought Charter Cable like mad as they wanted me to use their DVR and I had a TiVo. But I got no help from TiVo and had to pay a geek extra to come and install everything. In 2008 my TiVo died and I tried to get a new and tried to get Direct TV to allow it. They refused to cooperate. I called and wrote and begged TiVo for advice or help – and they ignored me at first and then eventually sluffed me off and basically told me – “too bad if you are having problems finding or using our product. Not our problem.” I have a Direct TV DVR now and hate it a lot, but at least it works and I can get service.