Goodbye TIVO's ??

[Bruno]

Well at the recent CES show in Vegas the New Direct TV owner said he was going to have his own brand of systems like Dish. I'm just wondering what is going to become of all these TIVO's. Is this just a threat to get TIVO to play ball with him? Who know but it stands to be very intresting down the road.

Bruno

 

[SlicerMDM]

Uh, no. Who said Tivo was going anywhere?

D* will start pushing DVRs, speculation is that it will be Murdoch's own brand which, I believe, has fewer features than Tivo. This lessor DVR will not replace the Tivos but will be used as a low-cost way to attract non-DVR subs (new and existing, I'd guess) to the world of DVRs.

Tivo will continue to be supported and sold by D*.

 

[Bruno]

Tivo will continue to be supported and sold by D*.

Well hope ur right but in his own words he will be replacing all the units with his own brand box. He said there was 120 different boxes out there and he wants only one brand. He said this would be a long process to change them out.

 

[SlicerMDM]

Is this the announcement you're talking about??

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=22203

If so, perhaps you didn't see the last paragraph that states:

As part of this new hardware strategy, the company will continue its aggressive marketing of the DirecTV DVR with TiVo.

There's plenty of other announcements that confirm D* comittment to the continued use of Tivo as one of their receivers.

BTW, the brand-new HD DirecTivo is being released in the next month or so and, again, D* fully supports and markets (when it's done) this receiver.

D* isn't dumping Tivo any time soon.

 

[mike123abc]

DIRECTV could also have its own brand DVR box that runs the TiVo software.

 

[Stargazer]

Murdoch will probably have his own type of box like Dish Network has in which has less features and do what Dish Network once did, have no monthly DVR fee charge. Dish started charging it because they figured it would work better having a smaller upfront cost for the DVR and charge for it per month than to charge the high upfront cost without the DVR charge.

Dish will not have much of a choice if they want to compete to drop the DVR charge to keep their customers in the future, unless their programming package prices are cheaper than what DirecTv's would be for comparable programming.

 

[geneb11]

Sounds like he wants to phase out the non DVR STB's. The DTivo's are not going anywhere as far as I see it. I paid $400 for both of my Tivo's and with the new HD Tivo coming out I think we're safe for a long time.

 

[Stargazer]

DirecTv wants to have an overall advantage to cable in which is DVR. They see that there were advantages before over cable that has gone away and they want advantages again across the board and it will take some work. He wants to keep his subscribers. Having all subscribers with a DVR will reduce the cost of the hardware perhaps with all DVR companies and with hard drives for computers.

 

[Bruno]

Well I'm not sure you understand the problem...Its all about MONEY. Tivos has great equipment but Tivo is getting the dollars not Murdock. They way i read it was they will give you a DVR one of these days to replace the $400 tivo you got with the lifetime warrenty ...but you better pray murdock buys out tivo or you will be getting the less featured DTV DVR.

 

[beejaycee]

Well I'm not sure you understand the problem...Its all about MONEY. Tivos has great equipment but Tivo is getting the dollars not Murdock. They way i read it was they will give you a DVR one of these days to replace the $400 tivo you got with the lifetime warrenty ...but you better pray murdock buys out tivo or you will be getting the less featured DTV DVR.

When churn is such a major concern, why would Murdoch switch to a product with less features and risk alienating an existing loyal following? It is one thing to offer a DishNetwork-type (read: less featured) DVR for little or no money to a new customer. It is another altogether to replace equipment paid for by a loyal customer with equipment that obviously is not as full-featured (and potentially not as robust), free or not. Think of the PR nightmare it would cause to pull the DTivos for another piece of equipment which is not perceived to be as reliable - whether that perception is true or not. I don't pretend to know anyone's mind but I don't think Tivo is going anywhere for awhile. The risks seem to be too high.

 

[BobMurdoch]

He is trying to make all of the DirecTV receivers have the DirecTV logo ONLY on the receivers and make sure they all share a common interface. This will cut down on their current CSR training but will also restrict choice.

Rupert is also concerned with fighting the "free" PVRs E* is selling. Look for him to do what he has to to enable him to give them away as well to new subscribers (as he stated in the 1/19 Business Week magazine).

 

[pradike]

TIVO is software (for the most part)

TIVO is software on a particular hardware device. For that reason, I'll bet DirecTV buys Tivo (as a software product), and then lets anyone who wants to license it cheap to install on their brand hardware...that way, they'll be competition for equipment, TIVO everywhere you look, more D*TV subscribers, and lower prices from the competition. EVERYONE WINS!

I'll bet 10 bucks this is what happens.

 

[BobMurdoch]

TIVO is software on a particular hardware device. For that reason, I'll bet DirecTV buys Tivo (as a software product), and then lets anyone who wants to license it cheap to install on their brand hardware...that way, they'll be competition for equipment, TIVO everywhere you look, more D*TV subscribers, and lower prices from the competition. EVERYONE WINS!

I'll bet 10 bucks this is what happens.

I'll take that bet. Rupert has spent millions his own proprietary PVR systems in Europe and the rest of the world. Look for him to standardize D*'s system to sync up with the rest of the world to cut down on development costs. The only way I figure I lose this bet is if Tivo can convince a judge that its patents are bulletproof and he would need to license the software to be able to keep the PVR functionality within US borders.

 

[pradike]

I'll take that bet. Rupert has spent millions his own proprietary PVR systems in Europe and the rest of the world.

You aren't Rupert's cousin or something, are you??? (just kidding).

Your point is well taken. The reason, however, that I respectfully disagree is that time to market is clearly becoming a critical issue (competition for HDTV in 2004 will be fierce), and Rupert has a history of "siezing the moment".

Tye futures of Dish and Voom will most likely result in only 1 survivor, and D*TV will begin to see a major slowdown in new subscriptions (which is at the core of Rupert's whole purchase model) if they don't step up and compete more in this space. One CSR at D*TV told me (a week ago) that she alone gets 20 calls a day about HDTV programming. If you mulitply that out to their 300 CSR group - that's alot of interest and pent-up waiting for more.

 

[mike123abc]

One has to ask the question: How many subscribers would DIRECTV lose if they drop TiVo? The answer is probably not many. Where would the subs go? It is not like they could go to Dish Network and get TiVo.

DIRECTV has to figure out how many customers make the chose between them and other services just because of the TiVo. The answer is probably not many. The people that read the internet boards are far more knowlegable than the rest of the users that barely know about VCRs much less DVRs.

 

[Stargazer]

Another thing is that DirecTv would save that much money for every DVR box they did not have to replace. They could give the customer a choice of whether they wanted it replaced or not.

Also if they were to swap out all boxes they may be changing out the encryption to combat hackers. Then even those with Tivo's would have to swap out their boxes.

 

[Tyralak]

Another thing is that DirecTv would save that much money for every DVR box they did not have to replace. They could give the customer a choice of whether they wanted it replaced or not.

Also if they were to swap out all boxes they may be changing out the encryption to combat hackers. Then even those with Tivo's would have to swap out their boxes.

I do know they're moving to a "cardless" reciever, which should be significantly more difficult to hack.

 

[video62]

One has to ask the question: How many subscribers would DIRECTV lose if they drop TiVo? The answer is probably not many. Where would the subs go? It is not like they could go to Dish Network and get TiVo.

If DirecTV drops Tivo support (i.e. renders my DirecTivo useless) I'll drop DirecTV in a heartbeat and move back to Dish.

I've only had a DirecTivo for a few months (had Dish since '96, a Dishplayer 7200 for almost 3 years) and it's something that I'd be very upset if I could no longer use.

I've invested some time and energy hacking my DirecTivo and now enjoy a web interface and watching recordings streamed to my PC... why would I want to give that up?