ZDNet has an article on TiVo's deal with Comcast to provide PVRs for the nation's largest cable company. There's not much new in the article, but it's a nice review of the partnership. And a rep from Comcast confirmed that the new set top boxes, first announced well over a year ago, will be available before the end of 2006.The larger issue here is whether it even makes sense for TiVo to continue making standalone products like the Series2 and Series3 TiVo boxes. If you ask most cable or satellite customers if they'd rather rent a box for a few bucks a month or pay $800 and a subscription fee to get a box from TiVo, very few would go the latter route. And most cable and satellite service providers are offering some sort of cheap PVR these days.
The point is, not only is the price tag on a Series3 TiVo extraordinarily high, but the profit margins are pretty low. Although it would have to split the profits with Comcast, TiVo stands to make a lot of money through its partnership with Comcast by providing a "TiVo-like" box with "TiVo-like" software to as many users as possible. If the deal goes well, TiVo could offer similar services to other TV providers.
So while other set-top box manufacturers like Digeo are considering breaking out of the niche market of selling their set-top-boxes through cable companies, it's possible that TiVo will have to make this partnership work if it wants to stay afloat.
1. I'm not sure what you mean by, "Now if only the Series3 would support OTA HDTV...," since they DO support it.
Maybe I missed a joke, or something.
Posted at 10:11AM on Oct 31st 2006 by Tony_S