I hate to admit it, but I’m feeling a little foolish right now. Last week, I raised the question of whether or not Dish was researching a hostile takeover of TiVo. In my article, I concluded that they might try, but that they’d never be able to afford the $7.5 billion poison pill that came with it.

Since then, I’ve spent more time researching the pill and realize that I made a terrible mistake. Not only is there an antidote, but Dish may already have it.

Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this pill, but could never figure a way around it. It wasn’t until I asked myself a simple question, that the solution became so obvious. What would Charlie do?

Love him or hate him Dish CEO Charlie Ergen has a special kind of brilliance. His reputation as a fearsome litigator is legendary and more than once he has demonstrated his mastery for the fine art of negotiation. Over the years, his decisions have created huge growth for Dish (albeit at great risks.) Unfortunately, his penchant for the legal system may have finally caught up with him and now he finds himself struggling in quicksand with the prospect of having to buy rope from TiVo.

(more…)

It’s been several years since TiVo initiated their patent lawsuit against DISH Network, but we’re finally reaching the endgame of what has been an epic chess match between the two companies. Between the he said/she said arguments that have played out in the press to the endless legal maneuvers by both camps, it has been a long and brutal battle for both. As a TiVo shareholder, I’ve certainly found the long delays especially frustrating.

In the latest development in this high stakes game, TiVo appears to have pinned Dish in a dangerous checkmate situation. With appeals quickly running out, Dish’s options are becoming increasingly limited. While things look pretty dire for Dish, they may try to play one more dangerous gambit before the game is up:

I believe DISH might try to buy TiVo.

While looking through my traffic logs, I came across a very interesting visitor. (pic above) In 2006, I wrote an article referencing a “poison pill” TiVo implemented in 2001. Since Google loves bloggers so much, my story somehow ended up near the top of the page for the search term TiVo poison pill. Given recent analyst chatter that TiVo could be an M&A target, I’m not surprised that people would be interested in taking a closer look at the nuts and bolts behind the agreement, but I was surprised at where my visitor was browsing from.

While there’s no way for me to know who exactly it was, someone at EchoStar’s corporate HQ’s spent nearly 25 minutes researching an article that I wrote on the topic. Their outclick took them to the legal document that contains all of the nitty gritty details on how the pill actually works. Now, there could be any number of explanations for why someone at Echostar would be interested in TiVo’s anti-takeover provisions, but the most likely one is that they’re interested in making some kind of play at TiVo.

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Zandir

After finding a few minutes to scan TiVo’s quarterly call transcript what stands out, other than hoarding $200+ million in cash, is what appears to be a slippage in the delivery of a new DirecTV TiVo DVR. 2009 has become 2010. CEO Tom Rogers, via Seeking Alpha:

DIRECTV not likely to rollout until early next year

We’ve pointed to that timeframe in early next year

our expectation is early next year that the DIRECTV new product will be available

I can’t say I’m surprised. And have been suggesting for some time that it’s unlikely we’d see the renewed DirecTV+TiVo relationship bear fruit this year. (more…)

I realize I’ve been a bit critical of TiVo lately and they’ve got a fine, new retail competitor in Moxi. But we want TiVo fans to know ZNF still has love for you. This TiVo schwag prize package I’ve collected over the last couple months consists of a window cling 3-pack for your car(s), a deck of Comcast TiVo playing cards, and a basketball with TiVo logos (bring your own pump). Entering the contest is as easy as it gets, simply leave a comment. (US residents in the lower 48 only, please.) We’ll choose the winner at random in a few days.

Leaving comments across the blogosphere…

Twitterrific Comes Roaring Back Into The iPhone Twitter App Wars
As someone who paid $10 for the original, I’m glad the upgrade was free. But they may have introduced extra complexity and reduced usability in how they implemented the expanded feature set. I’m a bit torn between it and Tweetie. Wish I could pick and choose features (and performance) from the two to design the perfect client for me. I’ll continue to play with it a few more days, see if it grows on me and as I get more familiar with the UI.

MiFi is a mobile broadband game changer
Two questions: 1. ) Does Verizon show you your data usage in your online account? Since they’re charging overages, I’d want to keep tabs on bits transferred. 2.) Can you recharge this via USB? 2a.) Does it come with a car charger? Seriously considering swapping my Sprint aircard and Cradlepoint router for just one device. Could be overkill most of the time, but less overall clutter when on the road. Keeping it charged is my only concern.

More about TiVoToGo & Multi-Room Viewing Copy Protection (CCI byte Explained)
Except all the Series2 units don’t use CableCARDs and are not subject to Cable Labs. I think I recall Pony mentioning some sort of Macrovision flagging as well. Of course, the rational was a bit odd. I believe the context was since they provide Series2 units with DVD drives they were bound by Macrovision regulations. But it seems to me they didn’t have to adopt it across the board. I think it’s just as likely they did it that way to keep the content industry at bay. Who knows!

CableCARDs: Cause for Joy, and Pain
Some factual errors and omissions here… CableCARDs are NOT tuners, they are separable security devices. Multristream cards (M-Cards) support dual (or more) hardware tuners/tuning. Also the fees are all over the board. My 3 CableCARDs were installed free and some franchises don’t require truck rolls, though many (most?) do. Additionally, card rate varies. I think Comcast’s official policy in my area is the first card is free and additional cards are $1.50/mo which may or may not come with an ‘additional outlet’ (AO) fee. However, all three of my cards are free ‘rentals’ and I’m not charged outlet fees.

In addition to consumer confusion or ignorance, CableCARDs used in current retail boxes do not provide two-way services like video on demand (VOD) or handling switched digital video (SDV). However, the future (perhaps) lies in tru2way – a common platform to enable that. However it may also require you get stuck with the crappy cableco UI on your third party device, like HDTV. And you mention things dying out, yet tru2way is just getting rolling… and all the major cable-cos and many CE vendors have signed on.

Lastly, there was a move afoot to meet the FCC’s separable security mandate via software, rather than hardware pairing/authentication. Not sure where that stands.

(more…)

Filed under ‘those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it’, TiVo and Seven are repeating history Down Under. The recently introduced Australian Home Networking Package runs $200 AUD (~$150 USD) and enables TiVoToGo, Photo & Music sharing from PC, multi-room viewing, and provides the TiVo Desktop Plus software for video transcoding. Ozzie TiVo HD clock in at $699 AUD, with 7 day over-the-air (Freeview) EPG and no fees. So a motivated customer who buys two TiVos would be “rewarded” with a $150 fee if they’d like to transfer shows between units as we freely do in the US.

TiVo’s been down this path before here in the US… In the early Series2 days, expanded DVR options, such as multi-room viewing and PC photo streaming, were upsold as the TiVo Home Media Option (HMO) for a flat $99. Given TiVo owners are already paying a hardware premium, at some point the company wisely dropped that fee to market these features as a value-add.

It’s probably obvious where I stand on this business model. But I don’t claim to be an expert on the Australian television marketplace. And there’s a variety of financial considerations at play as Seven discusses in their surprisingly frank and interesting pricing FAQ:

TiVo in Australia is not owned by TiVo Inc in America. Hybrid TV is the licensee for the TiVo service in Australia and in exchange for that right – we pay TiVo a license fee on everything we sell and we often also have to pay 3rd party license fees for the Australian region. Obviously in America TiVo does not pay itself a royalty so their price is lower. These license fees add to the cost of our products here in Australia. This is a normal business arrangement between any licensee and licensor – nothing unusual.

(more…)

I’m still getting familiar with my loaner retail Moxi HD DVR ($800, no fees). The Moxi UI is high def lusciousness and it offers some compelling features beyond requisite DVR functionality – such as the ticker, media streaming, and web browsing (!). And not an ad in sight. However… The interface does take a bit of getting used to. Plus, like Engadget, it feels like just about everything requires one too many clicks and, like Gizmodo, remote control operation is often a mystery.

However, I’ve been perfectly willing to give it a little time. Melissa isn’t quite as patient. While I’m responsible for nearly all our tech decisions/purchases, she often ends up living with them. Perhaps a family DVR shouldn’t involve a learning curve. Her thoughts, with only minor stylistic and grammatical editing (hypertext links, too) by me:

——-

Among the many benefits of being Dave’s other half, is getting cool gadgets shipped to our home. While I may not be a true geek, I appreciate user-friendly devices that aren’t meant solely for tech gurus. We all know about Dave’s love-hate relationship with TiVo. True to himself, Dave has always provided an honest critique of the TiVo product. But, I have come to love our TiVo(s) simply because “My TiVo gets me“. Which is why I am not loving the Moxi unit we currently have hooked up in our bedroom.

Maybe I am a creature of habit and don’t do well with change. So, the burden is on Moxi to help me make a smooth transition if they want me to fall in love with their product. The interface is busy and distracts me from seeing what I am looking for. Way too colorful. Plus, it makes me work too hard. Moxi simply takes too long to find recorded programming. There seems to be too many steps to get me to the shows it recorded. I’m also somewhat frustrated with lag time when flipping channels.

I miss my simple-to-use TiVo that I have come to depend on. Not only because she gets me, but because I get her!