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TiVo might have some life left

Posted Nov 29 2007, 06:01 AM by Kim Peterson
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Poor TiVo. The company pioneers the DVR business only to watch the market being taken over by cable and satellite. It's hard to sell your DVR to people when Comcast is practically forcing a DVR set-top box into their hands. 

Luckily, TiVo is working out some deals that might keep it in business, and some of them were announced this week.

First, NBC agreed to place TiVo "tags" in its commercials, so that viewers can click the TiVo remote during an ad to get more information about the product. And to counter the legendary TiVo ad-skippers, NBC signed up for a TiVo service that measures audience viewing behavior on a second-by-second basis. Basically, the network is going to test advertising campaigns to see which, if any, can hold on to its audience during commercials. Good luck -- that fast forward button is a very good thing indeed. [readmore]

TiVo said yesterday it struck a similar deal with Carat, a large ad-buying company also concerned with "the fast forwarding viewer." Carat will be able to study 20,000 anonymous TiVo households and observe viewer behavior.

So TiVo's research service is taking off. On the DVR side, the company has licensed its DVR software to Comcast. That means Comcast subscribers will soon be able to pay an extra $3 a month to get TiVo's software on Comcast's set-top boxes, which are mainly made by Motorola. TiVo's software blows away the offerings from Comcast and Time Warner Cable, but I'm not sure subscribers will want it enough to pay $3 more a month.

Don't let these deals fool you into thinking TiVo is out of the woods. Its quarterly earnings had some disappointing news. Total subscribers fell to 4.1 million from 4.4 million a year ago. Monthly churn is up to 1.3% from 1% a year ago. Gross adds to TiVo-owned subscribers dropped to 69,000 from 101,000 a year ago. Still, net loss and revenue beat the Street consensus.

Bottom line: TiVo is doing whatever it can to keep from being rubbed out by cable and satellite. As good as its software is, the company has recognized it needs to create value in other areas, like its audience measurement service. The Comcast relationship is a good start, and might be a precursor to an acquisition by the cable giant in the future. As it stands, TiVo's future is far from clear and the stock, which has been a non-performer all year, is probably one to avoid for now.

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Comments

 

Direct TV just replaced my box and said they "cut out the middleman."

Mike Fisher (Posted 11.29.07 8:57 AM)

It is only TV. How about turning ot off and read a book. I do. my family has never seen a survivor or dancing with the pukes.

steve (Posted 11.29.07 8:59 AM)

I am so disappointed the program providers (DirecTv and Cable companies) have chosen to offer less than Tivo in their DVR offerings. I love my Tivo, but I'm just the loley consumer. Who am I to argue when it means more money to corporate America. We all know how desperate they are for profit.

Vicki Zimmerman (Posted 11.29.07 9:07 AM)

NOBODY wants to watch TV commercials, 99% are inane and irritating, and even the 1% clever ones are rerun over and over again ad nauseum. I don't know if this is still true, but years ago when we lived in Germany they ran an hour or so of solid commercials early in the evening and then their prime time shows were shown thereafter commercial free. It forced the commercials to be entertaining enough for people to tune in and watch, which we did. Its time to rethink and retool our sponser paid television programming.

TivoUser (Posted 11.29.07 9:11 AM)

I have used Tivo for years and DVR.  The only thing DVR has that Tivo lacks is being able to watch your show while you scroll through the listings to see what else is on.  Otherwise, DVR only holds X amount of space versus Tivo and I've had several times where DVR did not record shows.  I LOVE TIVO and recommend it to EVERYONE over DVR.

Elizabeth Fowler (Posted 11.29.07 9:19 AM)

what happens to all the lifetime unit subscribers if TIVO goes under, will those boxes still operate and have full features as they currently do..

Lee (Posted 11.29.07 9:27 AM)

One of Tivo's biggest pitfalls is it's lack of advertising.  The only reason I ever bought one is because a friend had one, showed it to me and I fell in love with it!  These things would sell themselves if more people showed them off with all their great, easy to use features.  Tivo just needs to get the word out more!

Brian (Posted 11.29.07 9:40 AM)

If Tivo keeps making it difficult to replace the boxes they will have more of a fight than they should be having. The boxes don't last more than 2 years and they make it very difficult and costly to replace. The monthly fee from cable is the same as Tivo. So watch out Tivo, if you don't turn this around I will be the next cable DVR customer when my Tivo box dies.....and it WILL.

Karen (Posted 11.29.07 9:53 AM)

With higher gas prices at the pump, I have done away with Direct TV and TIVO, and have returned to regular TV after 10 years. I see this trend around my neighborhood. The average Joe can't afford the PAY TV when the money is needed for gas and other essentials that have risen so much. I switched an old computer over to a TIVO effect to record my programs from regular TV. It is not as handy but is efficient as TIVO. Good Luck to their future.

Dick (Posted 11.29.07 9:55 AM)

My biggest problem with TIVO is the monthly charge.  In addition to having to lay out big bucks for the TIVO box (over $250 if you want high def) and then pay $12 a month for the "service" plus any monthly charges from the cable provider for cable cards to be able to record other than broadcast programs.  $12.99 a month from the cable or fiber provider and I never have to worry about the equipment dying - even though the interface is not as good as TIVO's.

Don LeRoy (Posted 11.29.07 10:28 AM)

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