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Engadget Interviews TiVo CEO
r-blo writes "We've got an interview of Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo, by Engadget correspondent J.D. Lasica. He's rather candid in his thoughts on Hollywood, Netflix, the FCC, the INDUCE act, their competition, and their latest technology, TiVo ToGo, which lets you take your TiVo-recorded shows with you on your laptop (or PC, as it were)."
My favourite part -
;)
We developed a security mechanism around that, submitted it to the FCC under the broadcast flag initiative, and the Motion Picture Association and the NFL went ballistic and lobbied incredibly hard. But guess what? It got approved. The FCC supported our technology.
Should the FCC be in the business of regulating new technologies like this one?
Definitely not. It's scary when you feel that you have to go to the FCC for permission to do something. So we're not very comfortable with that. I think the broadcast flag stuff is less onerous than some other things, like the INDUCE Act. That we're much more concerned with because that could lead to prosecution of individuals who induce copyright infringement. That just opens up a whole can of worms. If you upset consumers enough, they'll become pirates, and that law has the potential to do that.
You'll notice that everything on the table in Washington being pushed by the media companies doesn't target regular television. It's targeted at things like ripping DVDs, how long you can keep movies pay-per-view movies, and so on.
Yay! I'm glad that atleast there are _some_ companies out there who feel this way.
Yes, if you upset the consumers enough, we'll all become pirates -- and what do you do when every one out there is a pirate by the **AA's definition?
It's about bloody time that the rest of the media companies out there realize this -- what're they going to do, arrest everyone? Stupidity.
I'm surprised at the resistance that the corporate world is showing in this regard -- they seem to be simply unwilling to adapt to new technologies and new media, and those that do (such as TiVo) actually do well.
I've always liked TiVo, but after the way TiVo handled the recent DRM troubles, I've really begun to respect them a real lot.
Way to go, guys. Goodluck, and may you continue kicking ass
The story summary didn't have any editorial comments... I need Slashdot to help me decide if TiVo (or Mr. Ramsay) is an evil company (tm) or a good company.
Seriously, though - I'm not a TiVo customer, I don't know anyone with a TiVo, and all I know about them is from the media (mostly Slashdot). I've thought about getting this kind of product/service - but with free software alternatives that I can put on my own hardware, here are my questions:
Is TiVo a company that I should support with my dollars? When I decide to plunk down some coin for a PVR, should I pay for it? If I should pay for it, is TiVo the best choice?
Well, today one of the exciting things is the marriage of DVD recorders and TiVo.
Without asking about copyright, digital rights, copy protection, etc. It's a very big and contentious issue. It would have been great to hear his answer.
http://www.busyweather.com/
From the interview...
How are you negotiating your relationship with Hollywood after they essentially put your main competitor out of business?
Our role is to create a great experience for people who want to watch television. ReplayTV crossed a line, and they kind of asked for it, and they were put out of business.
The Hollywood industry never really liked the Betamax VCR, so they certainly must be scared of DVRs. The features that got ReplayTV into trouble was "Show sharing" accross the Internet, and a semi-automatic skipping of commercials it could detect.
TiVo of course has never offered such features, and TiVo-to-Go will be based on a USB dongle to tie recordings to the user who recorded them and try to stand in the way of user-to-user sharing.
It's a strange world they live in... loved by consumers, but being careful to keep the Hollywood megacorps from crushing them.
What line did ReplayTV cross? How did that put them out of business -- aren't they still IN business?
I totally don't follow DVR stuff, so I have no idea what he's talking about. Little help?
Moo.
High definition will become more commonplace. Five years from now, you'll be able to get television content over broadband, whether it's over satellite or cable, and it will be the start of some new and interesting sources of content which has not been available to people to date. And five years from now, the idea of electronic delivery of video rentals will be real. Blockbuster will still be in business, but the idea of getting your video rental over broadband will have started to happen.
this is an interesting and very realistic view on the future. Very often the demise of video rental is predicted within the next five years, as is the death of traditional tv. Ramsay seems to understand this won't happen overnight. As he says, it will begin to happen, but won't be as sudden as is often predicted by media outlets searching for flashy stories.
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Suppose you download a video from the future TiVo/Netflix service and it takes the best part of a day. What if your local copy has been corrupted along the way? They'd better make sure and get their technology right and make it possible to download the screwed-up part alone -- I'd be a bit pissed if I had to retry a whole download from scratch if it took that long.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
- Judging Amy
- Gillmore Girls
- Everybody Loves Raymond
With this new gadget, I could consign her to watching these terrible shows on her Mac, preferably with headphones on and a small tent around her desk.Damn, who am I kidding? I'll be the one in the tent watching 12 hours of LoTR
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
What is it?
...
Brilliant!!!
Its a box that lets you record and time shift live TV!
Time shift and record?! Brilliant!!!
And the best part we know what people watch
We know what they watch!? Brilliant!!!
-- P.S. Is it already obligatory brilliant bit or it hasnt caught up yet?
Just because I don't care, it doesn't mean I don't understand. Homer J. Simpson
A probably unoriginal analogy for the INDUCE Act: what if GM and Ford got sued because their vehicles can go faster than the speed limit?
sigs, as if you care.
I have had TiVo now for years. I wish the interviewer had asked Mr. TiVo President why they NEVER improve their interface. It always is the same. Many many clicks to get common tasks done, long pauses waiting for poorly implemented algorithms to finish, lack of customizability. As much as I love TiVo, I wish they would make it more configurable and flexible. For example, I wish I could set up arbitrary filters, instead of choosing from their sets. Also, I wish I could use wildcards. And I wish I could set up shortcuts for common operations. And I wish I had a keyboard to make typing easier. Their interface NEVER improves. Did I mention that? :-)
Currently hooked on AMP
I wish there was something in there about plans/dates for release of a NON DirecTV HD Tivo. I just got HD service from my cable company and would like to get a Tivo that can record HD braodcasts...afaik -- there's no such animal from Tivo.
I think this quote was really interesting:
Nobody can stop us. You do the deals and you get distribution. You don't have to get carriage in the traditional sense. Anyone can buy bandwidth and deliver their content, and that will have a large impact on the cable and satellite industry over the next 10 years.
That's one thing I was wondering about the future of Tivo before. It seems like what they really do is take broadcast media and transform it to digital media, that we all know and love for the flexibility we have to use it.
So then over time as all broadcasting shifted to more of a digital media model where shows just opened up access to episodes at a certain time instead of "broadcasting" them, in that world what use would you have for a Tivo?
But they are smarter than that. They mean to make Tivo the box that starts the trend for delivering programs instead of broadcasting them. And they mean to do it with traditional media kicking and screaming the whole way.
Somehow, when a company you like as much as Tivo says "Nobody can stop us" it sounds more delightful than threatening. I guess that's because for once, as the consumer, I'm not on the short end of the stick.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
supposedly its time to dump tivo. apparently the CEO and all his buddies are too busy fleecing the company by putting all the money into the pockets of exec staff.
Fuck that.
I love the comment about the excitement over HD TiVo, followed by the mention you can only get it with evil DirecTV. Even if DirecTV wasn't evil, there's no way in hell I can hit their satellites from my home (my patio directly abuts the neighboring building, and I have an extremely narrow view of the sky from there).
Right now I use a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000HD (HD DVR provided by my cable company) which has to be the most under-powered (CPU-wise) piece of consumer electronics ever produced. Press a button (wait 3 seconds), press another button. Keypress caching is intermittent and unpredictable, so you get into situations where your device becomes unresponsive for a minute because you accidentally held down a button. Directly entering a channel from the remote can take 5 attempts. It crashes regularly and takes 10 minutes to recover from a crash. It's a complete piece of shit that I pay $10/month to use because for all of the hassle, being able to record in HD is pretty sweet.
So TiVo needs to hurry up and release an HD-capable device for the rest of us so I can tell my cable company where they can stick this stupid box. Can you hear me TiVo? I want to give you money!!!
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
r-blo (ryan block) is the editor of Engadget and also the submitter of this story. I would prefer he disclose this when submitting stories to slashdot in order to hype his own site. Which, by the way, are the only story submissions he makes to Slashdot and he never discloses his connection to Engadget when submitting them..
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
ReplayTV crossed a line, and they kind of asked for it, and they were put out of business.
That really wasn't how it happened was it?
I have a ReplayTv, labelled as such, it still works fine, skips commercials and I can still buy one just like it. Thanks to DNNA, who bought out the subscriber base of RTV users. They even off excellent CS.
Even if somehow you could stop Tivo (which I am not sure you can as they have too much mindshare - I think Tivo is sort of the next iPod, if it's not already) there is no stopping that trend.
All it takes is someone selling a box, and providing content to taht box over users broadband. Eventually someone with a box will have enough interesting things you can view that more people will want that than cable. Then will come the real pressure to provide cheaper broadband-only connections.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I like the idea of Tivo, and you have to give them credit for being first to market. But the problem with both Tivo and ReplayTV is that they're greedy.
Here's what I mean. Both Tivo and ReplayTV set-top boxes cost somewhere between $100 and $300. You also have to subscribe $13/month in order to make full use of it. Otherwise it's just a glorified VCR (and not very glorified at that). The other option to bypass the $13/mo charge is to pay a "lifetime of the unit" fee of $300. Then you'll finally get the good stuff like "record all episodes of this show" (called Season Pass by Tivo).
On the other hand, most cable companies offer a DVR service for only $10/mo. I got one from Cox, and it's practically identical to the Tivo, except all those features you don't get unless you pay the subscription for with the Tivo, I get for only $10 with my DVR.
To break it down:
Tivo/Replay
box ~ $250
service = $13/mo
Cable Co
box = $0
service = $10
And, you get all of the worthwhile features. Of course, my cable company doesn't let me program my DVR over the Internet, but I'm not sure that feature is quite worth shelling out several hundred bucks right off the bat and an extra $3/month.
The moral of the story: why the hell would anyone want a Tivo when your cable company gives you a better deal? I posed exactly this question to both Tivo and ReplayTV. Tivo never responded, and ReplayTV apologized and offered me two months free service. I'm not sure they understand English.
...if they really wanted to sell those things, they could just get up to speed with a pricing contract for a set wholesale amount from a fabber/jobber, then advertise them and take pre-orders, and once the magic number was hit start production and then on to delivery. They could even make it almost painless for existing customers who show an interest, just have them tack on a dollar a month to the subscription perhaps as part of a pre-order.
Yay! I'm glad that atleast there are _some_ companies out there who feel this way.
Yes, if you upset the consumers enough, we'll all become pirates -- and what do you do when every one out there is a pirate by the **AA's definition?
That hits the nail on the head, but why isn't it obvious to everybody? We live in a _democracy_, and can make any rules we want. That is the theory of how the system is meant to work...
Thus, if the majority of people feel a certain way, about any issue, then the rules should reflect that.
The real question is _why_ most people break the law. If, in the long run, their breaking of the that law isn't harmful to society, then the law is broken. If you determine that that law is required for the long-term sustainability of something valuable, then the legal framework and technologies should be designed so that the average person isn't in the dysfunctional position of supporting a law that makes them a criminal. Anything else indicates a break in the system.
Are rich people gaming the system for their own benefit... and forming a legal framework to support their interests, or do people feel that copyright laws and systems are fair and that they are compulsive infringers.
When you put it that way, it seems that the former is happening and the (democratic) system is broken, and some people are more equal than others. I don't think anybody disputes that (in general), but I'd like to see someone acknowledge that fact, and _then_ frame laws to protect IP content producers. That would give the system credability.
I feel that we can continue to expect the IP cartels to extend their assets and rights - they have the only incentive they need: money.
I welcome our new IP overlords. Please give me a job, I am also chasing money, it's very instinctive.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
There is not that exact feature, but you can get to see if the show is being rebroadcast soon much easier.
If you actually press record, you can select Season Pass and other options. And in the following screen you can select View upcomning episodes. Done!
Tivo and ReplayTV costs and service fees are higher because they have to make all their money from DVRs and DVR service. Cable companies can offer DVRs cheap because for them it's not about profits from DVRs, it's about the demonstrated increased customer satisfaction (and therefore higher customer retention) and tendency to order more extra services (bigger packages, PPV, premium channels that DVRs make easier to watch) that has been shown to come with DVR ownership.
The same applies to DirecTV, which is why their Tivo DVRs and fees are much cheaper than Tivo standalones.
Also cable DVRs are generally crap compared to Tivo.
Seth, stop talking.
r-blo writes **"We've** got an interview of Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo, by ***Engadget correspondent J.D. Lasica**.
I wanted to buy a PVR a few months ago. What I found was a serious lack of ability in current PVRs. If I conducted the interview my first question would be "Why can't I burn DVDs?" My second question would be "Why can't I burn DVDs?!?"
If I'm going to shell out big bucks for an ultra-technomological VCR, shouldn't it at least have the same level of functionality as my current VCR? The lack of ability to archive shows and movies, combined with the monthly fee, queered the deal for me. I went with an EyeTV that I plugged into my old mac tower. The cost was similar to a Tivo and the functionality is drastically superior. Also, no monthly fee. I buy something and never have to worry about paying for it again (except for blank DVDs).
I have used a Tivo, and I really like the user interface and ease of use, but come on, grow a pair already and give your customers what they want.
Disclaimer: if you don't have a spare mac laying around this option may not be the best for you. (come on this is /. we all have spare macs laying around, right?)
In the interview, the interviewer alludes to Hollywood suing ReplayTV into the ground. I hadn't heard of this. Could someone please summarise for me what happened? What was it that ReplayTV did that incurred the wrath of the RIAA et all?
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
Mike is right on so many different levels. Broadband content delivery will become extremely important... not just for television and hit movies but by turning 500 channels into 500,000 channels. The opportunity in the fragmented content world that includes everything beneath the current 500 cable/satellite channels (the tail, as it has become the recent catch phrase) is a huge collective market. Both Microsoft and TiVo would be wise to address this market and be the first to offer this content via their living room devices. A print ad you might see in the future would look something like this, "Sure you can get 500 channels on your cable television box... but after you've finished watching the Yale interview with author Kurt Vonnegut, can you get the 2004 rock climbing championship from Joshua Tree California?" TiVo... your tv. Who you want, What you want, When you want, How you want it (did we mention without the commercials?)... Why would you want anything else? There will be a huge market in organizing, monitoring and broadcasting this new media. Tools will be needed to filter content and create a truly unique experience. Guides will need to be written and monitored along with these search tools. This new content will become a stepping stone for the most creative to be picked up by the traditional mainstream content distribution channels -- to be discovered so to speak. As the hand held video content becomes avaialable to every creative college kid, new shows like MTV's jackass will be developed without the constraint of media censorship. This new content will be promoted both by word of mouth but as well as by tracking services like today's Technorati ranks blogs and their popularity. It is going to be a very exciting time for television over the next 10 years. Although as fantastic as the TiVo service is, it's numbers are still tiny comparred to the potential. Two million subscribers is just tiny. Microsoft even smaller. But Bill Gates is putting $20 billion into this living room initiative and that may change some things. The biggest barrier to adoption of a living room PC, either Microsoft's MCE or TiVo's Linux based system (really it's a computer and not a set top box), is the initial cost and that consumers NEED A REASON to upgrade and adopt the technology. The problem is the chicken vs. the egg and herein lies the rub. Those that truly understand how great TiVo is already have TiVo. You hear over and over again... "I wish I had just bought it earlier... it's so fantastic." HDTV is one reason to buy it and upgrade, especially as the sale of HDTVs are exploding. Unfortunately Microsoft or TiVo still haven't gotten this one right yet. TiVo is ahead of Microsoft with a satellite HDTV unit but Microsoft's MCE 2005 and it's limited OTA capability is not enough to drive the consumer to buy the machine for HDTV. Offering viewers alternative television programming at the smallest level is a reason to upgrade. We all are fanatics of something, hobbyists, enthusiasts -- fractured in our pursuits, but even more enthusiastic about them than television. This is the power that is eBay. They tapped the commercial market of the fractured hobbyist. Initially research should be done to find the most profitable niches below mainstream television for maximum penetration. However it will not stop there. As crazy as it sounds, you may be able to TiVo your kids' little league game and watch it later as someone on the team picked up the responsibility of videotaping it... or perhaps the Little League organization itself subsidises these tapings to promote their organization and bills the teams through the standard fees and dues. Television is kind of important to a lot of people, but if your son plays Little League then this is much much more important than television could ever be to you. To be able to watch a Little League game afterwards with your son when you were out of town on business and missed the actual game or to let grandpa back in Maine get a season pass to the games, now THIS will drive box
Ok - Tivo has great plans and a potentially strong market niche. But what will happen 4-6 years from now when our bandwidth reach +10Mpbs? The delivery of content will be completely on-demand. Won't media networks take advantage of these ultra-high bandwidth lines and build their own customized, fully interactive, on-demand service? That is what a web page does, but today we work with a somewhat limited bandwidth -- cnn.com doesn't offer full TV-like content on their website because its simply too much content. Five years from now, this sort of web/TV conjunction will be common. It is the final stage of delivering us first-class, interactive content.
Now how can Tivo compete with this? Why will their box be useful if all it is is on-demand content, much like a website is today. Unless they revolutionize television viewing through some form similar to what is said in the post above, where you are able to watch your grandchild's Little League through someone who is responsible for videotaping it, what good will Tivo serve? My only guess is seeing them as being the union to all of this content, much like Google is the union to other forms of content on the Internet. Ironically, 4-6 years from now, won't the Internet and TV be the same thing? If Tivo really decides to be the union to media content, what differences will it have over Google? Currently, Google runs R&D on search algorithms, in the hope it will attract the public, and then advertisers to generate revenue. Tivo is also going through a prosperous time, R&D technologies approved by the government that will resolve the issue with copyright usage so we can legally "share" content. These two companies are currently on two different quests at the moment, but what will happen when our bandwidth is high enough, allowing television to fuse with the web. TV networks will provide interactive, on-demand content. What else is there for Tivo to do? What good is there to allowing us to record and share a show, if the show can be watched anytime, anywhere, through streamed, on-demand service. Tivo's only role from that point will be to unify all of the content offered by various networks (a search engine for television).
I now ask: what will then be the difference between a future Google and Tivo? Isn't the final objective of both to find desirable content? Today Google owns Internet search, and likewise, Tivo owns TV search. They both have similar objectives, and only a slightly different form of working with the content. Tivo lets you record things, but in the years to come with the fusion of television and the web, how can Tivo stay in shape if things no longer need to be recorded, being that they can be viewed anytime? The only left over market for them would be uniting all of this new televised content from various networks into some form of search technology; which would be very useful. But isn't that exactly what Google, Microsoft, or the so called "Clusty" by Vivisimo is trying to do?
For all the incredible things Tivo allows for, I can't imagine a physical technology with monthly fees to live too long; they are fighting for an awesome concept, but where is this all going to lead? Could Tivo technology be the new middleman for copyrighted works? Will it end up head to head against Google or am I talking nonsense?