TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

In article ,
Mike Hunt wrote:

I think most here will agree that $20/month is a bit steep.

How is buying a 80 Gig TiVo for no money upfront and $7/month steep??

TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:22:49 +0000, Bob wrote:

That's playing with semantics. As to whether you are licensing it or buying
it. Best Buy doesn't run ads for Turbo Tax saying "for license". The
advertise it "for sale". All over their website are buttons for software to
click that say "Buy Now".

Regardless, if you've paid for the equipment, $20 a month is a bit steep.

If someone buys a 3 year old Tivo off ebay, they are not going to want to
pay $20 a month to get programming info. Whether the rest of it is being
licensed to them or not.

Under the new fee schedule, one would be a fool to pay for a used Tivo
unless it had a transferable lifetime sub, Tivo Basic, or an old S1 unit
that doesn't require a sub. So they've quietly just put the screws to ALL
S2 owners that don't have a lifetime sub. And it wouldn't surprise me if
they quit honoring those except from the original purchaser.

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TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

On 2006-03-09, Jack Zwick wrote:
In article ,
Mike Hunt wrote:

I think most here will agree that $20/month is a bit steep.

How is buying a 80 Gig TiVo for no money upfront and $7/month steep??

Last I saw, the 80G TiVo was $69.99. $7*12months = 84 which is $14.01
more than what it currently is costing. Plus, what happens at the end of
the year? Currently, you would own the hardware. With this new scheme,
do you then sign up for another year of service for an additional $7/month
on top of the normal $13?

--
This is my .sig

TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

On 2006-03-09, Wes Newell wrote:

Under the new fee schedule, one would be a fool to pay for a used Tivo
unless it had a transferable lifetime sub, Tivo Basic, or an old S1 unit
that doesn't require a sub.

Amazing, but I'm agreeing with Wes here :-)

So they've quietly just put the screws to ALL S2 owners that don't have
a lifetime sub.

The new fee structure only impacts new boxes. All current S2 owners won't
see an increase in their bill. So, it's not quite as bad as you make it
sound.

And it wouldn't surprise me if they quit honoring those except from the
original purchaser.

This would surprise me. I'd even wager money this won't happen.

--
This is my .sig

TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

I think most here will agree that $20/month is a bit steep. I liked the
idea of giving one month free to hook people, but they still won't want to
get a box that costs $20/month. Of course, the $20 is the worst case with
the best being $13/month. People are currently paying $13/month plus
money down for the box so obviously people will pay $13/month with no
money down. The question becomes, how much over $13/month will people pay
instead of paying money down for the box. TiVo has a number of price
points between $13 and $20 - we'll see how it goes. I was always a fan of
the lifetime so I'm bummed that's going away but I do think few got the
lifetime and TiVo doesn't like it as much since on paper, it doesn't look
like guaranteed money like the subscription fees do.

They'll get you if you don't watch out. They work in tandem.

Contrary to this belief, there isn't a conspiracy here.

--
This is my .sig

That's my point. A lot of people aren't going to want to pay $20 for
something that they perceive, rightly or wrongly, should be free. You
understand and I understand the licensing deal, but average Joe Six Pack
just sees them getting $20 a month out of him. Month after month.

And I agree, the lifetime sub was the way to go. Everybody I know that's had
Tivo for awhile took the lifetime option. I think it was $99 in the
beginning. At 20 bucks a pop, that doesn't even get you through baseball
season now.

They might sell more Tivos if there was no monthly charge. But I guess
there's a finite number of buyers.

TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

You just don't get it.

Now don't you start on me.

TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

Once upon a time, Bob said:
Exactly, information that is delivered OTA free.

Not the same information by a long shot. The TiVo data has a lot of
details (that are used for Wish Lists and Season Passes) that is not in
the free TV Guide data.

Most TVs bought in the last 5 years or so are capable of getting program
info either over the air or from the capable provider.

I have 4 TVs at home, 3 bought in the last 5 years, and none of them get
any program data. My father has a TV that does, and the data is mostly
garbage (incorrect information is common and a number of channels with
no data).

Someone (IIRC RCA) tried (and failed) to sell a DVR a couple of years
ago that used that as its data source.
--
Chris Adams
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

Yes, the pricing MODEL may be what people want, but the price is too
steep. My cable provider rents DVRs for $10/month. The popular ploy
with these pricing models is to give a cut rate for the first 6 months,
then jack it up to regular rate. This would work well for them; as
someone said, once someone starts using one, it will be hard to give up.

TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

Mike Hunt ) wrote in alt.video.ptv.tivo:
So they've quietly just put the screws to ALL S2 owners that don't have
a lifetime sub.

The new fee structure only impacts new boxes. All current S2 owners won't
see an increase in their bill. So, it's not quite as bad as you make it
sound.

Except that somebody that bought an S2 two months ago and is month-to-
month to see if its worth it will have to make a decision *right now* if
it is good enough to be worth paying for lifetime. Before this
announcement, they could basically dither about it forever.

--
Jeff Rife |
| http://www.nabs.net/Cartoons/Sherman...enLemmings.gif

TiVo announces new pricing plans
 

Mike Hunt writes:

On 2006-03-09, Jack Zwick wrote:
In article ,
Mike Hunt wrote:

I think most here will agree that $20/month is a bit steep.

How is buying a 80 Gig TiVo for no money upfront and $7/month steep??

Last I saw, the 80G TiVo was $69.99. $7*12months = 84 which is
$14.01 more than what it currently is costing. Plus, what happens
at the end of the year? Currently, you would own the hardware.
With this new scheme, do you then sign up for another year of
service for an additional $7/month on top of the normal $13?


I might be giving TiVo too much credit but reading the press release I
got the impression that the commitment and higher fee was effectively a
way of buying the TiVo on an installment plan. Hopefully once the
commitment is up the service fee will drop back to the normal $13.

The reason I think this may be the case is because in the press
release they seem to be making a point of listing the new prices as
being for a bundle of the TiVo box and service while making separate
reference for to new prepayment options for boxes bought through
retail channels. If this was a new uniform pricing policy it would
have made sense to include it in the same press release. The mention
of retail sales also suggests that this may not be a universal change
in fees. How many people would go choose to pay retail, submit a
rebate, and still pay the high fee instead of just requesting a TiVo
shipped directly to them with no rebate hoops to jump through?

Finally, if the higher price does continue after your commitment is up
then I suspect many people will simply ask TiVo for a brand new,
probably higher capacity, DVR and then use MRV to transfer everything
over before canceling service on the old unit. That way you would
at least have a new Tivo.

Also, won't this change in direct sales policy require TiVo to extend
their warranty on the longer commitments? If you have a three year
service commitment and your box breaks after the first year I think
most people would be highly annoyed to be told that they either had to
pay the repair cost their self or keep paying the service fee for two
more years on a door stop.