Directv dumps tivo

[Mr. Laz]

August 11, 2005 5:38 PM PDT
TiVo suffers as DirecTV bolts

For some time, digital video recorder maker TiVo has been struggling to meet financial expectations despite having one of the most passionate user bases in business. Good news for the company has been hard to come by, but one piece had been that satellite TV behemoth DirecTV provided its customers with TiVo's DVRs and service.

But now word comes that DirecTV is abandoning TiVo by year's end. And that can only mean more tough times for the DVR maker. Indeed, its shares plummeted 9 percent after the news hit Thursday.

To be sure, TiVo has had a devil of a time making money off its service. The problem has been that its customers are about as fervent about it as were customers of Kozmo and Webvan, dot-com-era companies like Kozmo and Webvan, but there just aren't enough of them for TiVo to pay the bills. And while it's always good to have users who would run in front of a bus before giving up your service, Kozmo and Webvan are probably not the kinds of names you want to be associated with.

In any case, with DirecTV jumping ship in favor of a DVR reported to be built by NDS Group, TiVo is rapidly running out of major partners with whom to reach large numbers of new customers. And if it doesn't find them soon, a lot of people out there are going to someday think back wistfully on TiVo and wonder why it didn't work out.


Posted by Daniel Terdiman

[shakesthecat]

DAMMIT TiVo! :cuss:


Oh well, as long as some other company picks up the ball, I guess life still has meaning.

[Iron Chef]

But, But I love my TiVo

[Mr. Laz]

But, But I love my TiVo
there's some rumors that Tivo might be on it's last legs all together.


look for Tivo to raise monthly rates first ... and then might go out of business all together.

[teedubya]

been a good stock to have shorted...

[chiefscafan]

so for us that have tivo what do we do now?

that sucks if I'm just out on money

anyone know?

[Mr. Laz]

so for us that have tivo what do we do now?

that sucks if I'm just out on money

anyone know?

they haven't said yet, as far as i know.


they might have an exchange program with their new DVR contractor

[Gaz]

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/

xoxo~
Gaz
Not too worried.

[morphius]

As Endelt said, Skip broke this news a life time ago. One must not forget that Tivo is working on a DVR for Comcast due to come out next year I believe, and I think Comcast has a few more subscribers then DirectTV.

[KCTitus]

As Endelt said, Skip broke this news a life time ago. One must not forget that Tivo is working on a DVR for Comcast due to come out next year I believe, and I think Comcast has a few more subscribers then DirectTV.

I was going to bring this up...it's odd, however, because Comcast already has it's own DVR but the GUI is absolutely horrid.

[Saulbadguy]

Skip broke this news a long ass time ago.

I'd hate for Tivo to go broke, but I figure I've gotten my money's worth out of the lifetime subscription already. I suppose if the service ended, I'd just get the Cox DVR. I think it's only a few bucks more a month than my present digital cable box.

And, I'd have a real pretty $200 paperweight.
I suppose you could use the hard drive for something.

[morphius]

I was going to bring this up...it's odd, however, because Comcast already has it's own DVR but the GUI is absolutely horrid.
Which is probably why they are working with Tivo.

[Ninjaman]

Why do people talk about tivo all the time like it's the only Hard drive recorder out there.

[Bob Dole]

Why do people talk about tivo all the time like it's the only Hard drive recorder out there.

Because more people own Tivo than anything else?

Oh...and we're all much better people than you.

[morphius]

Why do people talk about tivo all the time like it's the only Hard drive recorder out there.
Because they are still considered one of the best?

[Mr. Laz]

Because they are still considered one of the best?
hardware wise tive is the best ... ReplayTv gives them a run for the money in software.


Replaytv doesn't have the duel tuner models etc ... that hurts them.

[mrbiggz]

They will still sell the dtivo's, they just wont market it little if any. They aren't naive to the fact that the churn rate is .05 with the dtvo box and 1.5 without.

[Frazod]

Great. I've got three of the f#cking things. :cuss:

[Mr. Laz]

They will still sell the dtivo's, they just wont market it little if any. They aren't naive to the fact that the churn rate is .05 with the dtvo box and 1.5 without.
churn rate?



btw - it's my understanding the Directv has another DVR company they are going with ... i doubt they can keep tivo AND this new company.

[shakesthecat]

Easy boys.
I found this on the link that Gaz provided.


"I can 100% guaranty everyone that DIRECTV will continue to support all DIRECTV DVR's with TiVo service as long any customers have the product in service."

Now the guy could be completely FOS, but that seemed to be the prevailing opinion on that site.

[Skip Towne]

Eddie Hartenstein, Directv's CEO, was on Tivo's board of directors. As soon as Rupert Murdock took control of D*, Hartenstein resigned from Tivo's board. The writing was on the wall. But Tivo has had problems as long as three years ago and wouldn't have made it this far without D*. Tivo doesn't have a very good track record for reliability either. Herzig has gone through at least three of them.

[morphius]

churn rate?



btw - it's my understanding the Directv has another DVR company they are going with ... i doubt they can keep tivo AND this new company.
They could always just license the technology to connect to their dishes to any company that is willing to pay for it.

[morphius]

The bigger issue is how long does TiVo survive w/out DirecTV as a partner/customer?

Of course, becoming Comcast's DVR would take care of that.
I think if they don't get some HD stuff out soon, they could run into issues rather quickly.

[mrbiggz]

Tivo doesn't have a very good track record for reliability either. Herzig has gone through at least three of them.

I've got two that are two years old and a third that I've had since 02. My mom and sister own a few also and we've never had problems.

One thing to keep in mind about the whole thing was tivo only get's $1 from the Dtivo units. They charge 12.99 for there non-integrated units. With the comcast deal they should be fine. As far as this new dvr that Directv has coming out it seems ok as as features but the interface looks cheap.

[redfan]

Posted by Daniel Terdiman

Oh man, poor guy. I'll bet he got lots of carp (pun intended) for that name as a kid.

[Mr. Laz]

I think if they don't get some HD stuff out soon, they could run into issues rather quickly.

they have a good product ... if they would just relax their controls a little bit and let people use them how they want they might expand their market share.

maybe the television/movie people are putting the screws to the biggest DVR company :shrug:


but it seems like they sure are worried about people hooking them up to computers etc and trying to prevent anything they can.

[theultimatekcchiefsfan]

Damn I got 3 tivos in the house. Guess I will be going back to cox DVR again. Cox has dual hi-def tuners which are much more advanced anyway.