Wednesday, November 15, 2006
VHS Is Dead! Is Tivo Next?
Variety has the obit for VHS. Now, I'm waiting for the death of Tivo. Why do I think Tivo is dead? The simple reason is that every cable company now offers DVRs, which are just as good as Tivo and a lot easier to set-up and use. Why would anyone want to run a phone line to yet another box sitting on top of their TV when they could get the same service from their cable company? More signs Tivo is dead abound. They're offering a 100% rebate on their cheapest boxes (ie. they're giving them away). They're offering some nifty new services for downloading video from the Internet to your Tivo box -- the only problem is that it's not compatible with iTunes and YouTube, proving Tivo is a moron. And that nifty new service (along with a few others) is NOT available to people who get Tivo via Direct TV. Unfortunately for Tivo, they have 4.4 million subscribers and 3.9 million of them get it through Direct TV (which is now offering its own alternative to Tivo). So their big splashy announcement about new features on Tivo will only tick off most of their customers because these toys aren't available to them. Tivo is dead; long live DVR!
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3 comments:
TIVO is great. Do you own a TIVO? I have both of mine connected wirelessly, and upon my direction they can communicate with each other. If I am in a hotel- and see something I want to record- I can go to my Tivo account through the net and communicate with it, ie. record remotely. DVR's are nice for basic recording- however, if you take your home entertainment seriously, TIVO is the way to go.
I'm glad you enjoy Tivo, though I think you should brace yourself for bad news in the next year or two. All the trends for Tivo are very bad. It simply can't compete with the DVRs offered by every cable company. I think you'll find the one-time purchase of a $250 Slingbox will give you all the on-the-road capabilities of Tivo PLUS you can use any computer anywhere in the world to log on and watch what you've recorded, delete it, set new recordings without having to wait till you get home? Can Tivo do that? Not being snarky, just wondering. TIVO was awesome when it came out and I can understand your attahcment to it. That's well-deserved. Unfortunately, that's why Tivo was imitated by everyone else. Betamax was better than VHS too.
Why would I pay an additonal 250.00 for a service I already have? While the CEO of Tivo is less than dynamic- the stock is undervalued. Count on a deal between Tivo and another company in the next couple of years. DVR's just don't have the internals that Tivo does. Content is everything.
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