In the world of DVRs, the TiVo is easily the most important and capable device around. With a slew of options that allow you to find shows with ease and a user interface that is second to none, the product is a world-class entrant into the market. Yet while most people enjoy the TiVo — it has had a steady 70-plus satisfaction rate for years — it’s still a fringe device that has little chance of survival unless the company does something to combat cable companies and increase subscriber count. Unfortunately, that “something” may be a dramatically different price point — free.
According to James McQuivey of Forrester Research, who joined me on my CNET Digital Home podcast last week, “TiVo has been fighting for years and has only sold about 1.7 million units of its boxes compared to your cable and satellite companies, who looked at TiVo and said, ‘1.7 million units? We can do that.’”
And it’s that issue: The cable companies can (and have) capitalized on TiVo’s business model by creating sub-par DVRs that mimic the device’s functionality at no additional charge, effectively ensuring that TiVo still incurs millions of dollars worth of losses each year. This despite the fact that the cable company DVRs simply don’t hold a candle to the TiVo; they are incapable of offering the kind of solutions we have come to expect from more advanced devices.
