RSSYankee Group: TiVo No More By 2010
By Ed Oswald | Published January 22, 2007, 11:00 AM
TiVo has long been the target of much speculation surrounding its future as an independent company. Now a prominent analyst firm says its likely the company will not exist much longer as it will struggle to remain relevant in the market.
The end of TiVo will be the result of the dissolution of the standalone DVR product category as a whole by 2010. Instead, says Yankee Group, the technology would be integrated into other services, negating the need for standalone offering.
With the commodization of DVRs, the biggest benefit would be the advent of what it calls "Advertising 2.0." As more and more consumers turn to the technology, less and less of traditional TV ads will likely be viewed.
"It is important that advertisers, service providers and broadcasters remember that taking away the Anywhere Consumer's ability to skip commercials is not an option," said consumer analyst Joshua Martin.
Instead, advertisers will have to find new ways to reach these consumers. This would likely be done in much the same way as what TiVo is doing now to get ads in front of the consumer. Included in this would be concepts such as interactive, location-based, and time-relevant advertising.
Much of the above reasoning is why TiVo is changing its business plan to adapt to the new realities of the industry. In recent months, the company has put a lot of effort behind CableCARD technology, which would allow its boxes to act like digital cable set-top boxes.
Additionally, it has become more aggressive in developing a version of its service for cable companies, such as Comcast and Cox. With the loss of DirecTV as a partner, TiVo has struggled to add new subscribers, and is in desperate need of a new revenue driver.
However, TiVo's recent efforts are not enough to change Martin's mind on the company's fate. "TiVo has incredible brand value that resonates with customers and it will be an asset to any service provider, increasing the likelihood of an acquisition," he said.
TiVo could not be immediately reached for comment.
Yankee group is bought by their customers. Their forecast are worthless.
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|I have a Sony DVR which has the TV guide, friendly GUI, built-in DVD recorder, NO MONTHLY FEES and best of all the "Auto Chapter" feature makes skipping commercials just one button press.
I do not understand why people pay TiVo or their cable company $10++ per month and then not have the features I do.
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|I agree the Comcast HD dual tuner DVR has it's problems sometimes but TiVo is insane with their monthly fees and squeezing in ads while you're fast forwarding.
The entire ad industry is crying about DVR's, I almost exclusively watch saved programs as opposed to live TV just so I can skip the crap.
I paused the Bears / Saints game for about 45 minutes and ran out for some coffee and went to Lowes so I could come back and skip all the ads and all of the halftime non-football content. I caught up to real time with about five minutes to go.
Everything else I watch is DVR'd.
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|Apple should buy TiVo if only for their IP.
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|Microsoft would probably buy them first. Then rename it to "Microsoft Personal Digital Media Caching Server .NET 2007 Ultimate Premium Extras Edition" or just MPDMCS-07-UPEE for short.
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|The entire DirecTV loss sucks. TiVo should at least license their software and interface before vanishing.
I HATE every other manufactures interface and feature set for DVRs. I am so glad I got my DirecTV HD TiVO before they dropped them. DirecTV still lets you use it of course. Thank mighty pink jebus.
However I do see and look forward to complete "on-Demand" style programming. Whether it uses your internest or sat connection.
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|"The end of TiVo will be the result of the dissolution of the standalone DVR product category as a whole by 2010. Instead, says Yankee Group, the technology would be integrated into other services, negating the need for standalone offering."
Why single out TiVo? This means Microsoft is wasting its time with Vista and trying to make the XBox anything other than a video game console, since their media center features will be integrated with other services, too.
Someone from the Yankee group ought to let Bill Gates and Co. know. Them, and about 200 other companies that showed their latest "convergence" technology at CES.
I wonder who paid for this "research?"
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|"standalone DVR"
Did you miss that?
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|Dammit waterman, don't be so common sensicalistic.
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|Torrents won't be considered (ie. permitted) by the media owners nor the last-mile providers unless they can insert themselves into the stream to collect the revenue somehow.
TiVo's problem is like Netscape's: They built their entire world around a single trick. Those days are gone. It doesn't take long for the competition to close in around you. They should have diversified sooner.
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|I predict the Yankee Group will not last as long as TiVo.
The Yankee Group's reputation for poor quality predictions is only exceeded by their reputation for custom fitted analysis for hire.
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|Why use Cable or Sat when we have a far more efficient distribution method that is far less costly: BitTorrent + RSS Feeds. With Azereus or utorrent you can schedule your downloads of your favorite shows and leave your machine on, then hook your media center/mythtv/mactv, etc, to your TV.
Let's strip out the copyright arguments for a second: The world needs efficiency in it's entertainment distribution. Torrents provide that better than any other method.
Cable and sat systems are also outdated, except for "live" events such as sports.
Oh, and speaking of TCO:
Torrents: zero (except for HDD space + internet connection fees)
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|Would be nice. There's about 6 million of us who could do what you say, and 294 million who can't. While I don't disagree that it would be more technically efficient, it's not efficient with its merits towards an audience. It's still rather "efficient" to sit down at a TV at a certain time -- consider it placeshifting the person! :)
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|I totally agree as all my friends do to.
TIVO raising their fees just gave them their death sentence. Since they raised their fees 75% of the "tivo people" I know switched back to comcast DVR.
I will do the same as soon as my subscription runs out. Bye Bye TIVO, its sad but you did it to yourselves by raising fees and angering your customers. Oh well, just more room for a smarter company...
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|Comcast's Motorola DVR's are pieces of garbage. In many cases once you start fast forwarding a program the DVR won't stop fast forwarding (especially if the DVR is simultaneously recording something on the second tuner). Tivo boxes and Dish Network's DVR converter boxes don't have this problem. Also, Comcast's Motorola DVR boxes sometimes mute the audio on the cable box itself when it's recording a program and since the cable box remote is usually preprogrammed to control only the volume on your TV it's impossible to get the cable box out of mute.
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|HD DVR? You can get one from Comcast for $10/mo, or you can buy an HD TiVo for $799, plus $13/mo, plus $3/mo from Comcast for the extra CableCARD.
Hmm... TCO:
Cable = $120/year
TiVo = $799 + $192/year.
I think you're beat on this one, TiVo.
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|TiVo's main problem is their fees. A lot of people just want to pay one time for a DVR and be done with it.
The added ability of skipping commercials is nice but do you want to pay monthly for the feature?? No
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|EXACTLY! People will buy stand alone DVR's if they are available, but not if they are going to nickel and dime you to death.
I have an old series 1 Tivo and love it. It is lifetime subscribed so I do not have to pay a monthly fee. But when this unit dies Tivo can kiss my butt because I will not buy another one if I have to pay $13 a month just to use it.
After all Tivo is really nothing but a glorified VCR!
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|What was the lifetime fee for subscription?
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|I have two Tivo 1's. My first lifetime sub cost $299, I got the second during a promotion for $199. I've replaced both hard drives without losing my subscription....long live Tivo 1.
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