Comments on: TiVo Loses 125,000 Subscribers In January '09 Quarter

By: Blockbuster Teams Up with TiVo

Blockbuster Teams Up with TiVo — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:50:34 +0000

[...] for TiVo boxes to be sold in Blockbuster stores as well as online at Blockbuster.com. TiVo has been losing subscribers quarter after quarter and needs all the help it can get if it wants to stay in the hardware [...]

By: A Fresh Look at the Ever-Changing Set-top Box Scorecard « NewTeeVee

A Fresh Look at the Ever-Changing Set-top Box Scorecard « NewTeeVee — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 04:17:09 +0000

[...] you back $299 and the subscription fee is $12.95 a month just for the service. The company has been hemorrhaging subscribers, so who knows what’s in store for [...]

By: Random Stuff: Pepsi Logo, Cat Piano, Nazi Bankers » Webomatica - Technology and Entertainment Digest

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:08:54 +0000

[...] don’t have a Tivo, so I don’t know why the product seems to be dying. Is it because cable companies are offering PVRs? The recession? Or is Tivo becoming more useless [...]

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:25:53 +0000

johnthemon, as Bill said directly above you, this is due to people switching to other brands of DVR, usually offered through their cable or satellite provider, not dumping DVR altogether, so this will not help broadcast numbers at all.

I will miss TiVo if the brand dies completely. My DirecTiVo was my favorite DVR, and I really miss the doodoo-doodoo-doodoo sound. But, I don’t think there will ever be a time when I feel it’s necessary to pay extra for TiVo service, when I can get it so much cheaper through the cable or satellite company, and not have to pay for the box on top of the monthly fee.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:23:22 +0000

KC, who needs digital, baby! Analog, for the win!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:22:48 +0000

LOL

By: KC

KC — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:21:26 +0000

Shoutout for my VCR! Oldschool, baby…

By: Vid-Biz: TiVo, MMOD, Thomson Reuters « NewTeeVee

Vid-Biz: TiVo, MMOD, Thomson Reuters « NewTeeVee — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:01:41 +0000

[...] subs is now at 3.34 million, roughly the same April of 2005 (see TiVo’s subscriber chart at TV by the Numbers). Amidst the slow death of its hardware business, TiVo has struck separate deals with Alticast, for [...]

By: johnthemon

johnthemon — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:28:39 +0000

I expected this for a while. This could maybe help broadcast numbers as there are less people with DVRs.

I also expected people to cut off their cable subscriptions, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:46:06 +0000

Pete, TiVo’s declining results are much more due to the private label DVRs being pushed by cable and satellite providers.

By: clutz

clutz — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:44:04 +0000

I vaguely recall an article here that noted DirecTV saw some Q4 growth? We had questioned how much of that growth was related to digital transition. Seeing the Q4 losses in Dish, TiVo, and Comcast…I wonder what DirecTV was doing *right* so that sales would grow for them?

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:41:25 +0000

I would think Tivo’s declining numbers map up well to growth in Internet TV. If you can watch at ABC.com or Hulu, who needs to pay for or remember to set DVR recordings?

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:23:23 +0000

Matt2, since pretty much all other DVRs besides TiVo are provided by cable or satco providers who don’t provide those numbers regularly we may not find out. We usually get non-TiVo data from annual Nielsen estimates.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:19:23 +0000

Matt, my anecdotal take is that *growth* of new services add ons did slow in Q4, but that so far there hasn’t been a downturn where people are downsizing. though almost all of the providers are experiencing some subscription attrition (Dish lost over a 100K subs in Q4, Comcast was down, etc) in the aggregate they are just moving around and AT&T is showing some growth.

there’s a lot of chatter on the internet about cutting the chord on cable and satellite (and by extension any DVR, HD, etc they offer) and watching TV via the Internet, but the numbers don’t seem to indicate that any real volume of people is doing that.

By: matt2

matt2 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:41:35 +0000

I’d be curious to know if nationally all cable and satellite services were experiencing decreases in subcription orders for DVR and basic programming packages. I’m just imagining that with the country in economic turmoil, people are downsizing their tv services and shifting things they once considered a need into the can do without category.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:01:43 +0000

Nick C, I cannot comment directly on TiVo hardware, I was a ReplayTV man myself till we had to go with the damn Comcast Motorola DVRs to get HD. What many people who are TiVo fans cannot usually get past is while it may be a good product, it is a terrible business except for potentially the value of their IP.

By: Dan Dalton

Dan Dalton — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:58:28 +0000

Hey Nick, what time you do back on the midway? Ergen just called he said he needs you to shill over there for a bit.

By: Nick C

Nick C — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:51:01 +0000

Yeah, I’m not all that impressed with TiVo. I like DISH’s DVR system the best of all the ones I’ve seen.