TiVo Wins The Award: Best Way To Say We Screwed Up Our Pricing
from the doubletalk-deluxe dept
There really isn't that much to say about TiVo's decision to get rid of its lifetime subscription plan (just as they're ditching the upfront hardware fee). However, we have to give TiVo points for the amount of doubletalk in the explanation, which, boiled down simply is: "we were losing money on the liftetime plans." Instead of just coming out and saying that, they said: "We understand it's a great value, but in balancing trying to provide customers with great value and our own business interests, we think it was too far in favor of good value to make sense for us financially." In other words, people who bought into the lifetime plan got a pretty good deal.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Why TIVO anymore
TimeWarner DVR (2 tuners) for 6.99 month
or Tivo for 18.99 month (1 tuner better software)
I'll have to stick with Time Warner even though I love Tivo
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Re: Why TIVO anymore
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Lifetime Holder since 2000
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
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Tivo Hard drive replacement
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
The past two years have been completely free of charge to me, and all the upcoming years will also be completely free of charge.
I hear that mid-March (within about 11 days from today), they will no longer offer the lifetime service - so if you have TiVo, now is the time to invest in a nice service upgrade... and if that isn't enough incentive, I hear they will be upping the month-to-month rate of $12.99 to a whopping $19.95 per month for a minimum of 12 months at a time, which is $239/year.
Upgrade to lifetime now for $299 or pay $239/year..... yeah, lifetime sounds good.
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
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Re: Tivo Hard drive replacement
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
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Re: Tivo Hard drive replacement
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Too Bad
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One More Thing
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70328-0.html?tw=rss.index
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Re: Why TIVO anymore
This alone makes you wonder why they would think the $299 lifetime subscription is very good value Not to mention the cable providers also have PVR's built in. My current PVR is $4.95 a month.
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TiVo vs. others
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
It is a shame, because there are some really good free systems out there, but big media can't stand free.
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
The problem with that will be the Broadcast Flag once everything goes digital. If(note when) Congress gives in to the big media companies, if your hardware has not been approved by the gestapo, too bad.
It is a shame, because there are some really good free systems out there, but big media can't stand free.
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Re: Why TIVO anymore
I think that I will stick to mine.
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
Where did you hear that?
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Re: Why TIVO anymore
Hmmm...crappy cable company menu structure, no method of transferring to PC or DVD, $10 box rental, $5 service fee - or - TiVo...I think it's pretty clear.
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
They are NOT UPPING the monthly from 12.99 to $19.95.
They are offering NEW Tivo's to customers for $19.99 with NO UPFRONT COST (you pay for the Tivo over time).
So that $19.99 with no initial hardware cost. It's actually a pretty good deal, and should increase the customer cost. After 1 or 2 or 3 years of paying the higher price (which you pick) the price drops to the regular 12.99 a month.
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
--> Read the fine print. That "lifetime" service contract is for the lifetim of the Series 1 box, not your lifetime. If you buy a new Tivo or upgrade it's hard drive, the service subscription no longer applies.
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Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
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Tivo membership
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Re: Re: Tivo Hard drive replacement
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Re: Tivo Hard drive replacement
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Re: Re: Lifetime Holder since 2000
All that said obviously TIVO has some hardware issues. But I have tried other DVRs and there is no comparison.
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