Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2006 > April > 14
Friday, April 14, 2006
TiVo turnaround
They won!
TiVo’s suit against EchoStar communications was a costly gamble — if the company had lost, it could have easily seen itself get erased from the “Now Playing” list of players in the landscape, and its relationship with other cable and satellite companies would have only become more marginalized.
Now, TiVo, which as a brand has become synonymous with Personal Video Recorder technology, will surely be knocking again on the doors of cable and satellite companies looking for action. Nobody expects a “Make us your licensed PVR service or get sued” shakedown, but many companies will fall in line to avoid legal action just as DirectTV did in anticipation of the verdict this week.
DirecTV may be shielding itself, but the agreement with TiVo falls short of keeping the satellite company from stopping plans to keep rolling out its own line of standard- and high-definition recorders. DirecTV TIVo users (myself included) can breathe a sigh of relief for now: they won’t be deactivating our boxes just yet.
The bottom line is that for potential TiVo users, this is very good news. Many efforts from cable companies and satellite providers have fallen short in usability of TiVo’s well-refined boxes. While some set-top recorders come close, many are clunky and unreliable and certainly lack the personality of the user interface TiVo provides.
TiVo’s big misstep, I think, has been to insist on stand-alone boxes, many of which are a nightmare to install given the rat’s nest of cables most TV watchers have to contend with to get a TIVo box to record off their current setup. TiVo’s subscription fees, while not excessive, have not been as competitive as cable and satellite companies, who in many cases give the boxes away and add a fee under $5 to a customer’s monthly bill. TiVo hasn’t worked to compete with those kind of offers. With this lawsuit’s result, it may not have to.
his is a golden opportunity for TiVo to re-examine its business plan. Why not offer HD boxes for under $100 and subsidize the hardware cost by offering exclusive pay-per-view content? Or partner continue expanding online capabilities and move into more areas that competitors can’t or won’t support?
TiVo undoubtedly has a great product on its hands, but the great stumbling block has been getting itself into people’s homes. The company just got a second chance; if it fails to make itself more than a catchy name in many more consumers’ eyes, it won’t be able to blame patent infringement the next time around.
