TiVo is now officially available in Canada – kind-of

Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2005 by MegaZone

From the FAQ on TiVo’s website:

Is the TiVo service available in Canada?
The TiVo Service is now available in Canada. There are special instructions for Canadian residents to follow when activating service.

TiVo does not sell boxes in Canada, so Canadian residents must purchase boxes in the US and import them. If the DVR becomes defective, TiVo will not ship a warranty replacement box into Canada, and will only ship to a US address.

So they don’t have retail distribution in Canada (yet), but you can use the boxes there. So no more hacking required to use TiVo for our friends to the north!

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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  • buran

    I would guess that places like Weaknees will do it, though. I seem to remember that they used FedEx when I bought a drive and bracket kit from them, and Fedex is worldwide.

  • excaliburca

    So what are these special instructions? And where in Canada will it work?

    (A very happy camper in Ontario :) )

  • megazone

    From what I’ve gathered online you can enter Canadian postal codes during setup and it works throughout Canada. But I’m sure more details will come out.

  • excaliburca

    And I assume you have to have the latest version for it to work?

  • megazone

    Yeah, this seems to be new in 7.2.

  • anonymous

    So what are the specific buying instructions for a Canadian resident? Can one, for example, purchase Tivo and have it delivered via Fedex (other carrier) directly to Canada so as to not have to physically go to some USA address and then cross the border and the whole 9 yards for what amounts to a consumer electronic product? Does a buyer absolutely need to have a US address? and if so what could possibly be the reason for such? Why can’t Tivo NOT send their product to a Canadian address? Has the Canadian government restricted Tivo from selling in Canada? Might Tivo need to apply for a licence to sell in Canada? Regardless is it because Tivo will be required to provide and support their product literature in 2 languages (english and french) for Canadians?

    I am from Quebec, Canada and it is highly possible that, in order to offer the service in Quebec, Tivo would have to offer advertisement, product literature, the customer activation/service and even the Tivo Service Menu in the French language … in addition to English….ANY THOUGHTS??? … if such is the case, going around all of these hurdles is doable and I know folks who would like to distribute the product.

    Putting aside the currently complicated logistics (unless someone advises otherwise) if I went down to the States, procured a Tivo and brought it into Quebec would the Tivo actually pick up the local channel lineups from the local broadcasters (telco/cablecos)??

    Anyone from Canada (or elsewhere) who has installed a Tivo in Canada, could you inform if it is as easy as adding your local postal code to obtain a choice of providers and then obtain the chose provider’s channel line up??

    In other words will it work, what will it take to make it work…assuming that I have bought the unit

    Another thought…if I bought such a unit through say eBAY as I have on other occasions would it then not cross the US/Canada border as it has in past? Maybe Tivo should be adding these boxes through a global distribution channel like eBAY?

    TIA… J

  • anonymous

    I live in Toronto and my question is… Now that Tivo service is available in Canada, how do we pay for the service fee? Do we need to open an account with a US address? How does this work?

  • megazone

    You can open an account in Canada now, AFAIK. And since TiVo does payments with credit cards, I expect they charge the card in USD and the card does the conversion. Just like when I buy something from Canada and they charge me CDN, and my card converts that to USD on my statement.