TiVo

In 2006, Free Software Foundation (FSF) decided to combat TiVo’s technical system of blocking users from running modified software. This behaviour, which FSF dubs “tivoization”, was to be tackled by a change in the GNU General Public License (GPL) prohibiting this activity. Most of the software included in the TiVo is distributed under the terms of the GPL, and the GPL’s goal is to ensure that all recipients of GPL’d software are free to modify the software, to help themselves. This new license provision was acknowledged by TiVo in its April 2007 SEC filing: “we may be unable to incorporate future enhancements to the GNU/Linux operating system into our software, which could adversely affect our business”.

Media companies are beginning to acknowledge the influence of TiVos and other DVRs and are using old fashioned tactics of live ads in an attempt to circumvent the problem of skipping past commercials

TiVo has been a heavy user of mail-in rebates. According to BusinessWeek, the company recognized $5,000,000 in additional revenue when nearly half of the 100,000 new subscribers to the service failed to successfully apply for a $100 rebate, known as the “shoebox effect” (which marketers typically refer to as breakage). While this rate of compliance is fairly typical in the rebate field, the company’s heavy use of the promotional practice caused a large positive impact on its bottom line.

Also in September 2005, TiVo changed their customer agreement, instituting a one-year service contract for all new activations after September 6, 2005. Customers wishing to cancel the service early are subject to an early cancellation fee of up to $200. TiVo has not commented officially on this change, but with their recent drive to attract new customers, as well as subsidizing new hardware through large mail-in rebates, the company could be looking for ways to discourage users from canceling. Customers have also been discouraged by some of TiVo’s Holiday rate increases.

In September 2005, a TiVo software upgrade added the ability for broadcasters to “flag” programs to be deleted after a certain date. Some customers had recordings deleted, or could not use their flagged recordings (transfer to a computer or burn to DVD), as they could with unflagged material. TiVo has stated this was a bug in the software.In 2004, TiVo entered into an agreement with Macrovision to make TiVo machines copyright-protection flag aware, ostensibly to make it compatible with future pay-per-view and video-on-demand content.

In March 2005, TiVo began testing “pop-up” advertisements to select beta testers, to explore it as an alternative source of revenue. Many of these “beta testers” were simply subscribers who did not know that TiVo had selected them to test software changes and did not sign up for the beta program. The concept is that, as users fast-forward through certain commercials of TiVo advertisers, they will also see a static image ad more suitable and effective than the broken video stream.

At its announcement, the concept of extra advertisements drew heavy criticism from TiVo’s lifetime subscribers. Some were upset that they had already paid for a service based upon their previous ad-free experience, while others argued that they had purchased the service for the specific purpose of dodging advertisements.

Early testers complained that the pop-up detector was glitchy, and would sometimes pop up during unrelated commercials, or even during regular TV programming. They also state that the ads are aesthetically unpleasant, and take up a quarter of the screen, obscuring enough of the image to make fast-forward scanning nearly impossible. TiVo says that they are looking into these issues and will fix all of these problems before the advertising functions are rolled out to the public. It is unclear if these advertisements will be rolled out to TiVo enabled boxes with DirecTV and Comcast or just to their own standalone boxes.

TiVo Inc. has always provided updates of the software that runs TiVo units, usually downloaded along with programming data. These updates have been seen as improvements, offering additional functionality and fixing bugs. Sometimes updates have introduced new bugs or removed features available in the previous versions, which has resulted in criticism from affected TiVo users. TiVo is unable (or unwilling) to roll back software versions.

A small percentage of early TiVo units were marketed without being clearly labeled that a subscription was required for full functionality, and some non-subscribing customers were unhappy when they were unable to use new and improved features that subscribers received. It is believed that early dissatisfied, non-subscribing customers received some form of settlement, probably a money-back offer on the hardware, and TiVo now clearly labels its products with a notation that a subscription is required for full functionality.

Some TiVo hardware can still be used as a normal digital recorder, recording by date, time, and channel, without a subscription: specifically, any Series1 which shipped with software revision 1.3 or earlier, as well as Toshiba and Pioneer standalone units, which include TiVo Basic. Nearly all Series1 units originally shipped with 1.3 or an earlier release, however, late in the life of the Series1 some units did ship with 2.0 and those units require a subscription. All other standalone TiVo systems require a subscription to function. All DirecTiVo units require an active DirecTV subscription to record new content.

Some users are concerned about TiVo’s ability to collect detailed usage data from units via the telephone line. Like most DVRs, as units are downloading schedule data, they transmit household viewing habits to TiVo corporation. Collected information includes a log of everything watched (time and channel) and remote keypresses such as fast forwarding through or replaying content. Some users were uneasy when TiVo released data on how many users rewatched the exposure of Janet Jackson’s breast during the 2004 Super Bowl.TiVo records usage data for their own research and they also sell it to other corporations such as advertisers.[Nielsen and TiVo have also collaborated to track viewing habits.

TiVo claims that all usage data is currently aggregated by ZIP code and that they don’t track individual viewing habits. In the United States, users can request that TiVo block the collection of Anonymous Viewing Information and Diagnostic Information from their TiVo DVR by calling 1-877-367-8486.

TiVo and cable television giant Comcast reached a nonexclusive distribution deal in March 2005, easing some investor concerns over TiVo’s future. The companies announced that they would make TiVo’s service available over Comcast’s cable network, with the first co-developed products available by the end of 2006, using the TiVo brand. TiVo is porting their software to the Motorola 6412 cable DVR as part of this deal (the software can also be used on the related 6416, 3412 and 3416 models). The software will first be available in August 2007, starting in the New England area. On June 29, 2007, Comcast accepted the TiVo software for deployment.Currently this deployment is limited and considered buggy.

In January 2005, TiVo announced a long-term strategy that includes support for HDTV recording, integrated tuning using CableCARD technology, the ability to download and view content from the Internet, and a program allowing third parties to develop applications for the platform.

In January 2006, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the TiVo Series3[18] was introduced.[19] This revision represented an evolutionary step in the TiVo service, adding the capability to record high definition television and digital cable content utilizing CableCARD technology. The Series3 includes two discrete video tuners. Each tuner is capable of tuning QAM (digital cable), analog cable, over-the-air (OTA) ATSC (digital), and OTA NTSC (analog). Encrypted digital cable channels will be decrypted via CableCARD. The Series3 will work only with cable and antenna input, it will not support satellite television. Unlike earlier standalone models, the Series3 has no A/V inputs aside from one cable coax and one antenna coax. All content is recorded via the internal tuners.

The Series3 model also includes a 10/100 Ethernet connection port and an external SATA port which supports first- and third-party storage upgrades—a first for TiVo. As an HDTV recorder, the Series3 also has an HDMI output in addition to composite, S-Video, and component video. TiVo announced the release of the Series3 on September 12, 2006.

On 2007-05-29 TiVo Inc. and Channel Seven Australia announced in a press release named, Seven and TiVo Inc Sign Strategic Partnership to Distribute TiVo Products and Services in Australia and New Zealand, that:

Seven Media Group, one of Australia’s leading integrated media companies, and TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in digital video recorders, today announced that Seven will be bringing TiVo to Australia in 2008.

TiVo is set to become “key platform in Australia’s development of digital television and interactive communications.”.
The price of the TiVo box for Australia and New Zealand is $700AUD with no ongoing subscription fees.

On January 31, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision on a suit by TiVo against DISH Networks alleging software patent infringement.[
In May 2008 DISH and EchoStar filed a new suit requesting that the courts rule that the current version of DISH’s DVR software does not infringe on TiVo patents

In May 2008, TiVo boss Tom Rogers said that he was hopeful that TiVo would be relaunched in the UK soon.[23] TiVo also revealed they are working on a hub or server box that would record for the entire family and serve to all the TVs round the house.

Despite its innovative functionalities and ease of use, TiVo has had difficulty penetrating consumer markets to the extent that it has pulled out of some markets altogether (e.g. the United Kingdom). However, TiVo technology rolled out slightly faster than DVD players did. TiVo is well known for its users’ loyalty compared to generic DVRs from cable box manufacturers or Echostar. Nevertheless, TiVo has only a 30-40% market share in the USA of a total DVR market of roughly 10-12 million systems. Since it may take a few weeks of use to fully understand the magnitude of the change TiVo brings to television viewing, consumers may not be comfortable with such technology and opt to continue using their VCRs for recording. Another factor is the cost of the monthly or lifetime subscription fees. TiVo’s market share has dropped as cable television operators have offered free or low-cost DVRs.

While its former main competitor, ReplayTV, had adopted a commercial-skip feature, TiVo decided to avoid automatic implementation of that feature, fearing such a move might provoke backlash from the television industry. ReplayTV was sued over this feature as well as the ability to share shows over the Internet, and these lawsuits contributed to the bankruptcy of SONICblue, their owner at the time. Their new owner, DNNA, dropped both features in the final ReplayTV model, the 5500. However, the automatic commercial-skip feature was simply replaced with Show|Nav, which requires only the push of the arrow buttons to jump between segments. ReplayTV now has a negligible market share, as they no longer manufacture DVR hardware

Other distributors competing DVR sets include Comcast and Verizon, although both distribute third-party hardware with this functionality built-in. Verizon uses boxes fitted for FiOS, allowing high-speed internet access and other features.