DirecTV to stop marketing TiVo

Posted on Friday, August 12, 2005 by MegaZone

DirecTV Group Inc. on Wednesday said it plans to stop marketing digital video recorders from TiVo Inc. this year, as part of a broader plan to replace them with News Corp.-created technology, a top executive said on Wednesday.

Well, it is official. Sad, but this shouldn’t have a large impact on TiVo. While DTV has brought in the bulk of subscribers, TiVo sees very little revenue from DTV – and DTV has blocked TiVo’s value-add offerings like HMF, HME, TTG, etc. I think this is more a loss for DTV’s customers than for TiVo – though it sounds like they’ll still be able to request TiVo boxes.

It does sound like DTV hasn’t shut out TiVo completely, and they’re open to working with TiVo. But shipping the NDS box puts pressure on TiVo to do things ‘the DTV way’, giving DTV more negotiating clout.

Spotted in PVRWire

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • shadoh

    What a freakin’ bummer.

    I’ve been a DirecTV/TiVo customer for about 5 years now. Back when I made the decision to go with DirecTV, it was because the DirecTiVo boxes were superior to the stand-alone boxes. The only advantage standalone boxes had over DirecTiVo boxes was that you could use them with other providers. The advantages the DirecTiVo boxes had was that it was “pure” digital, dual tuners, and all functionality integrated into one box, eliminating having to have multiple boxes. Back then, it was no question that the DirecTiVo boxes were superior to the standalone boxes.

    NOW, since DirecTV has been stifling it’s TiVo, the stand-alone has so many advantages over the DirecTiVo that the dual tuner and built-in functionality almost makes me want to switch.

    I was a strong supporter of DirecTV for many years. Now I’m very disappointed with them and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll remain a customer.