TiVo to miss year one target

TiVo will narrowly miss its modest first year sales targets for Australia, its backer has admitted.  

The digital video recorder, which is being marketed in Australia by Seven Media Group, will sell less than the targeted 40,000 units, a spokesman told today’s Australian Financial Review.

Althoguh the unit is among the most technically advanced on the market, it is relatively expensive at $700, and only offers the free to air channels.

June 16th, 2009 at 8:00 pm

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Comments


  1. Dan
    16 Jun 09
    11:56 pm

    2. I don’t know what it does, how it does it differently or how it can help me.

    The name “Tivo” has been used for years in U.S. shows but with now understanding of it’s use – why would I pay for it?

    All I know is Harvey Norman tried to plug it for a month and that’s it. Bad product – too late in the game. Give up guys.

  2. Dan German
    17 Jun 09
    10:45 am

    3. The choice on Foxtel is so much better.

  3. TVAnon
    17 Jun 09
    10:49 am

    4. What did you expect the unit to offer? Foxtel?

    $700 is not expensive compared to other PVR’s on the market. It’s one of the most user friendly PVR’s with no ongoing subscription fees to access the content.

    It has a full EPG of better quality than the Freeview 7 day EPG currently broadcast with the digital signal.

  4. TVAnon
    17 Jun 09
    10:59 am

    5. Let’s do the math.

    Tivo $700 flat fee, forever.

    Foxtel equivalent is $800 for 1 year.

    IQ2 (for HD) $200 + $480 ($40 month basic package) + $120 ($10 month for HD channels)

    If you’re using the PVR properly you would have more than enough content available from free-to-air.

  5. Aimee
    17 Jun 09
    11:55 am

    6. TVAnon…I can’t help but beg to differ that there would be enough FTA content to record on your TIVO. The technology may be ahead of the rest, but the ability to only record off the FTA stations would be a massive drawback to purchase.

    There’s a reason why STV homes are viewing more TV per day on average than non STV homes and I would strongly argue it comes from the great programming on offer through Foxtel. Even IQ homes are watching even more television than the non-IQ homes, be it STV or not. So on the whole, why would you buy a PVR that could only do half the job, if its sole purpose (and I’m aware of other capabilities) was to be to record television?

  6. gus
    17 Jun 09
    12:38 pm

    7. Get a TiVo.. get a lesson on TiVo…. get someone.. a stranger … to show you TiVo.. you will never ever look back. And for the one flat fee it’s an absolute bargain.

  7. dave
    17 Jun 09
    1:46 pm

    8. Aimee – very well put. TiVo is an amazing product, but it’s only as good/worthwhile as the content it can access. The reason it’s shthot in the US is because it can record from a ridiculous high number of channels and there’s so much content available.

    The product here (correct me if I’m wrong) is a dumbed down version of it’s far superior American cousin and coming to market a few years too late.

  8. Tom
    17 Jun 09
    2:04 pm

    9. Dan, you may want to try it before you knock it. I’ve had a Tivo for almost 4 years (prior to the official launch I had a unit bought from the US with a PAL tuner in it for this market) and it has changed the way I consume TV. You can set it up to access all free to air (including digital) as well as download shows from Tivo to your PC, iPhone and other media devices (or the other direction).

    The system is easy to use and if you actually try it will change the way you watch TV (I now only watch sport and the odd news live – the rest is taped to watch when I want to watch and best of all allows me to easily skip all the crap commercials).

    The IQ provides very similar functionality and gives you access to Foxtel.

  9. adam
    17 Jun 09
    2:10 pm

    10. I only bought one of these last week….$700 is a cheap cost for something that I now own forever.

    I can go online and set up my recording from work, download movies, and watch TV whenever I want.

    I had foxtel and most things were re-runs anyway, except live sport. And most of which such as AFL, League, and Cricket on can get on free TV anyway.

  10. b
    17 Jun 09
    2:31 pm

    11. Adam, TVAnon and anyone else who would like to make calculations on a “forever” basis, who are you kidding? If the digital age has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that any piece of digital equipment that we buy has a limited shelf life and is then outdated, outmoded, needs to be replaced with a superior model (a must have for all consumers) or the technology is changed making it obsolete. So your calculation with a “forever” included fail from the start since most consumers are savvy enough to know that the way to calculate value is to say that the $700 is for the next two years at most.
    Sure, you may be able to use it for more than two years, but how many people here have had the same mobile phone for the last five years?

  11. Aimee
    17 Jun 09
    2:42 pm

    12. Adam – would be interesting to know how long ago you had Foxtel?
    Foxtel prides itself on having first runs, premium programming and investing in top notch local productions, miles ahead of its beginnings.
    If the current industry has shown us anything, it is the Foxtel channels that are continuing to soar because of their committment to their viewer to deliver what they want when they want it. So its this content I would be more interested in being able to access rather than restricted to FTA because of a one-off investment.
    Technology changes at the rate of knots. And you’ve now – as you said yourself – have this for life. Is it more fool you?

  12. The Buyer
    17 Jun 09
    2:55 pm

    13. Some of the comments left here read suspiciously like planted testimonies to paint Tivo in a positive light.

  13. TVAnon
    17 Jun 09
    3:34 pm

    14. Aimee – you’re obviously someone who works for Foxtel – no one else would use STV instead of PAY TV.

    ‘b’ – a Tivo for 2 years is still half the price of the cheapest PAY TV equivalent. The lifespan of a Tivo would be similar to a PC purchase rather than a mobile phone.

    I subscribe to Foxtel, but most people can get much better value out of a good PVR.

  14. Andy McKeon
    17 Jun 09
    5:10 pm

    15. I worked for Goodby in San Franciisco when we launched TiVo in the USA in the late 90’s and I had one of the first boxes. Alongside the internet and mobile phone i think it’s one of the best technological breakthroughs in years.

    Watch what you want, when you want and – you can skip through the crappy ads. And 99% of them are rubbish.

    It worked across both cable and free tv. Brilliantly.

    So why, in tiny Australia, nine years later, do we have this inferior version? Or, the need to buy both an IQ and TiVO? Politics? Land grabs?

    Australians have been completely stiffed.

  15. Dan German
    17 Jun 09
    5:12 pm

    16. I’d also point out that with Foxtel, I can record commercial free movies on a half a dozen channels. If I see a movie on FTA channels, I avoid ‘em.

    It should be noted that IQ is very cheap to install now. I think there is a free IQ promotion on at the moment. So yes, regular monthly payments, but oh so worth it.

    Something like 80% of homes in USA pay the cable/sat bill.

  16. Basil Scrotum
    17 Jun 09
    6:45 pm

    17. Hmmm.

    One half of the comments on here seem to come from the TiVo marketing Dept., the other half from FoxTel’s.

    Raise your IQ by 20+ points – throw your TV out altogether.

  17. GW
    22 Jun 09
    3:01 pm

    18. The answer is you are all correct.
    What we needed and never got, was FoxTiVo.
    The Foxtel content is great but the interface and functionality of IQ is terrible in comparison to TiVo. TiVo is the best tech I have ever used for TV, for the 5 plus years that I have been using it, but TiVo available here at retail is only FTA, therefore not enough content.
    The answer is both.

  18. Michael
    24 Jun 09
    8:34 pm

    19. I use selectv, i dont record i dont care, my box is satellite + digital free to air and cost me only $99 once plus $44 monthly subscription, tivo only fta $700 its a no brainer

  19. WinC
    29 Jun 09
    11:59 pm

    20. TIVO may be a good and easy to use product with good functionality, but I agree with the person who made a comparison of US and OZ channels. We only have a handful of free to air here, so much less use for TIVO than in US. I use a PC for my viewing needs, running Vista. I can schedule recordings, watch TV (can do 2 channels with a dual TV tuner card), watch DVD (can add Blu-Ray), listen to music, surf the internet, run Office….blah blah blah, and it cost me less than $500! TIVO is overpriced for what it can do.

  20. Anonymous
    1 Jul 09
    4:44 am

    21. i dont work for foxtel or tivo, both are overpriced, $700 for tivo and an ongoing rip off from foxtel.
    Think about that for a minute