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Tivo Signs Deal With Comcast
Chappy01 writes "TiVo has inked a long-term deal with Comcast, America's largest cable television operator, to develop a version of the TiVo service that will be offered to Comcast's DVR subscribers. The deal calls for TiVo to adapt its software to work on Comcast's existing DVR platform, and it allows TiVo to extend to Comcast subscribers the advertising it sells in the form of interactive video clips that automatically appear in the TiVo menu." From the article: "The move will increase TiVo's presence in American homes as it faces competition from generic DVRs offered directly by leading cable companies. Comcast Corp. expects to begin marketing the new DVRs, which will carry the TiVo brand, by mid- to late 2006." News also available from MSNBC and the Official Tivo Site.
I'm a fan of Tivo, but I think any impartial observer would note that Tivo would've definitely been negotiating from a position of weakness. Here's to hoping that they were able to negotiate a deal that would be profitable for them despite them needing Comcast much more than Comcast needed them.
Since the stock is currently up 49.52%, it would appear that a lot of people think this really will benefit them (or there are a lot of shorts panicking and covering their positions).
I'm a big tall mofo.
Tivo shares up almost 50% on the news
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=tivo
What losers! Comcast's millions of customers could save so much money if they just built their own MythTV boxes from the spare computer parts they all have lying around their houses. I mean, it's the way I decided to do it, so it must therefore be the best possible solution for everyone on the planet!
As long as the product lines can remain distinct, Tivo gets the best of all worlds: MONEY, exposure through Comcast, and the ability to continue to have a full functioning stand alone DVR (i.e. no "unrecordable content", etc.)
However, if they follow the Sony model (where the home electronics suffer becuase of concerns from the content side*), they're doomed.
*After I learned my friends SONY surround sound system couldn't play CD-Rs, I decided Sony had gone too far.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I predict this deal will mark the death of Tivo.
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."--Howard Zinn
No, the current TiVo boxen can use ethernet, and the Comcast boxen can talk DOCSIS. There will be no need for a phone connection.
Jeff
We do enough Tivo stories here...
"Substantial user interface design and testing went into the Tivo remote control,"
Not substantial enough. Sure, it fits perfectly in your hand and the button layout is good too. But god forbid you set it down for a few minutes and the damn thing is constantly rolling off the couch.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
As someone who has visited the Gerrold/General Instruments/Motorola offices in Hatboro, PA, and who has spoken to a fair number of cable operators, I can tell you this:
The box that this system will be built on, and the services to which it connects will almost certainly not be of the quality that Tivo now provides.
First of all, check out the Wiki entry on this cable box, and you'll see it's not that impressive, although it does have a few nice features (HDTV, recording two channels at once, 120GB disk).
Second, remember that cable operators buy these units by the millions, so every extra penny is a big deal.
You wouldn't think twice about a nice feature in your Tivo box, even if it cost an extra $10. To a cable operator, an extra $10 per box is an insane, indefensible amount and they'll cut the feature instead.
Finally, embedded programming on a cable box is worlds cruftier and more limiting than the Linux underpinnings of the current Tivo architecture. It's virtually certain that some features just won't be portable to this new box.
Count me a curmudgeon on this if you like, but I'll believe it when I see it.
When they said "Pause live TV" they just forgot to include "every 15-20 minutes".
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.