RSSTiVo Loses 145,000 Subscribers
By Ed Oswald | Published August 30, 2007, 1:57 PM
TiVo is still struggling to add customers, and miscalculations over the popularity of its HDTV products also hurt the company's bottom line for the quarter ending in July.
The Alviso, Calif. DVR maker's continued struggles highlight the need for the company to get its cable partners moving. More than two years after Comcast announced it would put TiVo on some of its set top boxes, there has yet to be a single commercial rollout.
CEO Tom Rogers attempted to quell concerns about those delays, saying in a conference call that Comcast was about to rollout commercially in "the next few weeks" in portions of Massachusetts and New Hampshire including Boston.
However, that was about the only good news for the company. TiVo actually lost 145,000 customers in the quarter. More troubling is where it is losing paying subscribers: from those that have the standalone box, its most profitable segment. The decline was the first in the company's history.
Furthermore, the company underestimated the popularity of its new HDTV DVRs, causing it to take a $11.2 million writedown for leftover models of its standard DVR still in its inventories. The growth "progressed at a pace that surprised many in the industry, including us," CEO Tom Rogers said in a conference call.
These problems added up to a $17.7 million loss, down sharply from the $3.5 million loss in the year-ago quarter. The losses far outpaced both TiVo's and financial analyst's predictions.
Wall Street is not taking the news well; TiVo's stock was down nearly 10 percent in midday trading to $5.61.
Comcast gets TIVO they get my business
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|I am the next one to cancel. Getting the Comcast DVR with Dual Tuner(I don't plan on buying the Tivo dual tuner, as it requires 2 digital boxes, which is another $3 fee added on for the second digital box, or the $300 HD Tivo.). Some shows I like to watch come on at the same time, and the Comcast DVR will allow me to record both at the same time now. Plus its 4 dollars cheaper a month. I will sorely miss the Tivo guide, as it provides so much detailed information about each episode, but now I will have an extra 80GBs in my PC. I also like that the Comcast DVR puts live TV in a little box in the upper right hand corner, while you are scheduling other programs. Tivo, you have been a reliable friend for 7 years, but your time has passed, and the future is on to other things.
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|I am an Old School Tivo-er. I've had the thing forever. Why do I hate Tivo now and will never solicit them again?
#1) Constantly pushing new consoles and software to screw the lifetime subscribers out of features.
#2) No lifetime buyouts anymore. I hate monthly bills. No lifetime, no buys from me.
#3) The asinine pursuit of removing recovery images from the internet. Tivo has horrible support for repairing broken disks, etc, and we created a community online that helps people upgrade and recover. Evil Tivo cant let that happen.
#4) No future-proofing in the design. They want to make the appliance cramped, hot and un-expandable to keep you in a tight upgrade cycle.
My next DVR will be Windows-MCE or MythTV. Sorry Tivo, you took a "verb" like Xeroxing and Googling, you had "Tivoing" and you SCREWED THE POOCH BY BEING GREEDY AND STUPID.
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|I get my HD DVR box for free and pay $7.99 a month for the service.. why would anyone use TIVO? Does TIVO do anything more then the standard DVR from your cable company?
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|Yeah, it actually works, which for Comcast customers using the garbage from Scientific Atlanta is a real plus. I tried those SA boxes and all I ever got was missed recordings.
Obviously, your experience has been a better one, but Tivo has worked out much better for me.
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|With On Demand for digital cable, online show access and the ability to record shows to your hard drive is it any wonder TiVO is losing customers?
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|I'd have to agree with some people's comments also. It's pretty expensive if you don't choose to prepay for a year or 2. The savings come in when you do 3 years prepay but wow, I can't imagine smacking down $320 for DVR service...unfortunately I don't have much use for their Tivo2Go service - it's so slow it's not even worth it, and my Tivo is running on a gigabit network so it's def. the Tivo device.
I don't consider myself cheap - but wasting money is wasting money. If something doesn't change with Tivo and the coming year, they'll be losing another customer I'm afraid. Maybe if they let me set up another Tivo under the $16.95 a month pricetag I'll change my mind.
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|actually I pay 8 dollars per month for my tivo service, I get to transfer recorded shows to my laptop using the tivo desktop software. My cable would charge me 12 dollars per month and all it does is record shows.
So for me all the added features is well worth it. Tivo needs to be bought by some bigger company, it is just too much of a niche market to have a company offer a single product, especially with all the competition.
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|Yes, but you also don't have to pay $300+ for the box itself or sign a multi year deal to get a low price like the one you have. Plus, in a year or two when the cable company has newer, better boxes with more storage, your old one can "accidentally" fall off the shelf and you get the new box.
There is just no way you're going to be able to get around the fact that charging for the box and a high monthly fee.
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|Of course they're losing customers. Who in their right mind would pay all that money each month on top of their cable/satellite bill? The service they offer outside of the software built in to each box is worth no more than $2 dollars a month, if that. Eventually other companies will figure out how to replicate the great software in their boxes and they'll be dead in the water.
They would be better served to survive in the future by significantly lowering or dropping their monthly fee and become a provider of cable boxes now that cable companies can't lock users to the companies own boxes.
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|CEO Tom Rogers, is an idiot. Tivo's board needs to get new blood in there before Tom kills the company...probably due to his own greed. I LOVE Tivo as a product, but everyones' comments are indeed valid. COME ON TIVO, DON'T GET GREEDY! Give the consumers a great product at a comparable price. If your going to follow the Cell Phone industry business model...give us the hardware for free
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|I never got the whole Tivo thing. I mean just throw in a TV tuner card in any computer and there you you have it, instant Tivo for just $80.
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|If you want any software that's worth anything (other than Myth TV) you'll pay another $80+.
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And your computer usually has to be on
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And you have to subscribe to one of the free 'tv listing' services, or pay to access that.
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AND the kicker: After you spend all this money, the picture looks like butt on your higher DPI computer screen (unless you have an HD tuner/source ... which is more $$$$).
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AND THE OTHER KICKER: Most, if not all, TV tuners take FOREVER to switch between channels, sometimes up to 3 seconds a piece. Try channel surfing with THAT pos!!
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|Sure a budget DVR might have some drawbacks. But most people don't need the high end stuff.
I just bought the Saber DA-1N1-e PCIe dual tuner card. And it has excellent quality and looks great on my 46" LCD HDTV.
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|Tivo blows, good riddance.
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|Can i move my Lifetime Subscription from my current Tivo to a new HD one?
If not, then the other one will continue to sit and rot under the bed.
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|Good. I like Tivo but its about time they stop SCREWING their customers with exorbitant monthly fees and rediculously high prices for the hardware.
If they dont correct their pricing to be competative with other offerings by the time my current tivo dies, I will definitely subscribe to the competition. You listening Tivo?
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|And the other choice is your local cable monopoly with its exorbitant monthly fees and rediculously high rental prices for the hardware.
Not to mention horrid service and primitive set-top boxes.
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|Actually my cable box is a TON cheaper per month than Tivo, looks just as nice, the only thing it lacks is an uppidy UI like Tivo.
I believe my service provider charges $5/month. Far cry from what Tivo charges, no matter WHAT plan you're on. And you don't have to freaking pay $600 for the HD recorder.
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|while they do not officially sell the life time subscription it is still possible to get one. I got mine in Jan of this year.
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|That was a one-time offer. Try to get one now and post the results. :)
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|It actually is not a one time offer (there is a loop hole) you can still get it if you know how.
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|I see the cable cartel's plan is working.They wanted make the CableCard experience so miserable that people just don't bother with CableCard devices, and it has worked. And now they are skirting around the FCC directives regarding competition by moving channels to SDV and locking out CableCard devices from getting those channels.
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|wonder how many of these peps dropped after suddenly realising how much of their free time was murdered while they were watching idiot box (TV). rewindidng commercials is a big plus (or did they stopped that?) but the programming is still idiotic.
ahhh, who am i kidding...
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|"rewindidng commercials is a big plus"
Either you mean fast-forwarding, or you really like your commercials.
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|They need to lower the pricing on the non-HD unit's subscriptions, and probably another reason for people dropping like crazy is the "contract" thing where you drop service before that year is up you pay 150 bucks... That's nonsense.
Another annoying thing is their billing. They bill you separately on your CC for each unit instead of hitting your card once a month for one fee.
The removal of the lifetime sub option also was a bad move. Heck, they should make Series 1's 5 bucks a month each.
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|Yeah well at $19/month for service, of course people are going to bail. I love my tivo (though the two i've owned only lasted 30 months each), but at those prices, I'll get it from my cable company for half that.
The HDTV DVR is nice. Just grossly overpriced.
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|thats what you get for stopping the lifetime subscription plan .
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