TiVo refocuses on cable and satellite allies

DVR provider TiVo has launched a new service division to keep cable and satellite partners like Comcast and DirecTV happy and to expand other business relationships, it said Friday.

To help the new group run smoothly, the Alviso, Calif.-based company promoted Jeff Klugman to the rank of senior vice president and general manager. Klugman will oversee the sales, marketing, engineering and all of the other activities TiVo checks off its list in getting providers to promote TiVo boxes alongside their cable and satellite services.

More than 3 million customers pay a $12.95 monthly fee to use TiVo's digital video recording service, which lets users pause live TV and, in some cases, move recorded programs to a home computer or portable device. TiVo's service works with all the major broadcast, cable and satellite providers.

Credit: TiVo Inc.

But while TiVo helped pioneer the DVR category, the company continues to face strong competition from service providers such as DirecTV, which has developed its own device, and from other consumer electronics makers that are making similar DVR products.

Still, TiVo presses on by partnering with providers like Comcast and DirecTV. The Comcast deal announced in March is particularly significant, because the two companies have agreed to make TiVo's DVR service and interactive advertising capability available over Comcast's cable network.

The first of their co-developed products will be available in mid- to late-2006 and will use the TiVo brand. Klugman said he would oversee the development of the product line from the TiVo side of the deal.

Beyond Comcast, which is a personal project of newly appointed CEO Tom Rogers, the task of building the TiVo brand amongst service providers and keeping the company's current contracts humming along falls into Klugman's lap.

"Our intent is that we want a broad footprint in the market. We are engaged in conversations with all of the major service providers," Klugman told CNET News.com.

Klugman also uses words like "mass deployment" and "broader distribution" when referring to his new duties. That's two items Rogers said he would focus on when he spoke to reporters this week. Rogers officially replaces TiVo co-founder Mike Ramsay today as CEO. Ramsay said he will continue to serve on TiVo's board and lead the company's technology committee.

Before joining TiVo, Klugman was CEO of outdoor adventure Internet portal PointsBeyond. Klugman also did a stint at Quantum, where he founded the company's consumer electronics business.

[201293546946733175101343322673]

TiVo Still Alive?

I thought, more and more people are watching/recording TV shows on their PC, and nobody cares about TiVo anymore :)

[Earl Benser]

They don't...

... that's TiVo's basic problem. TiVo is hanging on with a
technologically obsolete device trying to create a market among
the technology challenged TV viewers. Si far, TiVo's mantra
seems to be' losses scale with subscriber count'.That doesn't
seem to be leading to corporate survival.

My personal vote goes to first, a PC/Mac hardware software
solution using H-264 compression and standard hard drives
with cable, satellite, and OTA input options. Second would be a
set top box with the same capabilities, -plus maybe a 1000Bt
ethernet port.

This is the direction TiVo needds to move. But I doubt that TiVO
has the resources to do anything more than trying to find
customers for their model T design.

It's a tough world, even for the best. It's worse for TiVo.

I think its strange to pay

I have the DishNetwork with DVR granted its not TVO and cost less to use, about 4.95 a month if i remember correctly, still feels very odd to me to have to pay in order to use DVR, guess im acustomed to the VCR where you bought your tapes and didnt have to pay a monthly fee to use it.

Tough Times for TiVo

TiVo should have focused on DirecTV before Rupert Murdoch bought them. Most of TiVo's subscribers are through DirecTV who only pay $4.95/month and TiVo only gets $1.25/subscriber. TiVo is losing DirecTV to Murdoch's NDS.

TiVo won't see subscribers from Comcast until 2006. They do need to focus on these service providers or look for new overseas markets, because the service providers rule in the US.