The “second screen” onslaught continues as DISH unveils a brand spanking new Explorer companion app to kick off their CES festivities. Available to Hopper owners tomorrow, the iPad app opens to “What’s Hot” as a launching point to social television discovery and DVR control. Of course, the requisite Twitter and Facebook interactivity is present. Interestingly, DISH has also licensed a variety of real time sports-related data to incorporate into the experience. Continue Reading…
TiVo’s soliciting feedback on the various ways they might implement sound within their next generation remote control. Of course, the obvious usage scenario is being able trigger an audible alarm when you’ve misplaced that iconic peanut under a couch cushion. But TiVo’s applied for some pretty crazy patents over the years, including the one for a RFID-capable remote that distinguishes family members… that could tie in nicely with those rumored user profiles.
While the FCC has granted TiVo (and others) an extension in defining and implementing an open IP-based set-top standard to move content around the home, it’s probably safe to assume they haven’t been sitting still and new DVR hardware has been under development. My TiVo Premiere was manufactured three years ago (12/09) and I’d say odds are good that we’ll see something new prior to the 6/14 deadline. Continue Reading…
As TiVo allows me to skip commercials, I’ve yet to see their new Tim Tebow ads on television. Fortunately the company has begun posting the spots on YouTube. And, overall, they’re cute but relatively innocuous — with more lines given to child actors than Tebow and, sadly, TiVo product sees very little screen time. In fact, in the ad embedded above, their in-house crew provides zero exposure to TiVo hardware or interfaces… although we do get a glimpse at the back of both an iPad and flat panel television. As mentioned last week, we believe a more effective approach would be spotlighting the experience – as Apple has done with iPad commercials (and Virgin Media did with TiVo).
Interestingly, with little fanfare, Continue Reading…
TiVo’s out with their quarterly earnings and things are looking up after a profitable quarter, with continued patent litigation/licensing success and subscriptions growing 44% year-over-year… largely thanks to Virgin Media’s success in marketing and deploying well over a million TiVo units (versus seeing any significant gain via that awful “new” DirecTV solution). With other foreign and second tier US cable providers on deck, we expect TiVo’s footprint to expand and the company predicts reaching a point of recurring profitability in fiscal 2014.
On the retail front, assuming my math is correct, it looks like TiVo is averaging 10,000 Premiere DVR sales per month, these last three months… but also averages about 5,000 monthly cancellations or boxes that no longer generate revenue. So while this is TiVo’s best net subscription performance in four years, they’ve still got work to do. Which is why their marketing department has recruited Tim Tebow to get the word out via a multimillion dollar advertising campaign. Yet he’s a highly questionable brand ambassador given his poor presentation skills (above), status as a backup quarterback who can’t throw, Continue Reading…
TiVo’s fine iOS app has just been updated to version 2.1, bringing support to the new resolution Apple introduced with the iPhone 5. While I generally find content weirdly elongated on the 16×9 display, widescreen television video is a perfect fit – and those with the TiVo Stream are the prime beneficiaries. Having said that, all TiVo Premiere subscribers can make use of the additional screen real estate when perusing the guide or reordering Season Passes. Continue Reading…
