It's been a long, messy road, but now that TiVo's
beaten a victory out of EchoStar in that
seemingly-endless DVR patent lawsuit it sounds like the company is trying to exert some muscle -- it's already in talks to bring its service to Time Warner Cable, and sources have told
Bloomberg the ultimate plan is to eventually collect royalties from every pay-TV provider in the US. That might sound bullying and even a little trollish, but keep in mind these patents have
withstood pretty much
every legal challenge EchoStar could throw at them, so TiVo's operating from a position of some certainty here -- especially since it's got license agreements with huge players like Comcast and DirecTV to use as leverage in negotiations as well. Of course, none of this solves any of
TiVo's actual problems with its products, and the company's topsy-turvy balance sheet has some analysts thinking its ripe for a buyout by one of the bigs, so things could change dramatically at any minute, but for right now it sounds like your chances of getting the TiVo interface on your cable or satellite company DVR just went up, and that's almost certainly a good thing.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mitchelljd @ Jun 22nd 2009 6:21PM
good for Tivo, i'd be happy to have their programming over Directv's hd DVR which is very buggy, even if it weren't buggy, Tivo is just better. unless the cable/sat co's disable part of its features.
bimmerfreak0 @ Jun 22nd 2009 2:39PM
hmmm....i hope that i can get a box for twc soon then
normychas @ Jun 22nd 2009 3:12PM
You can get a Tivo right now. Upfront cost not withstanding its only a few bucks extra a month. Its absolutely a worthwhile upgrade. I never really understand these people that brag about how with the cable box they can upgrade and ask for a new box from the cable providers whenever they like. Its not as though the cable company dvrs have really changed at all in the last 5-7 years from a hardware perspective and as for reliability i prefer to have a box that is far less likely to break regardless of how easy the cable company makes it to switch out.
Dan Leising @ Jun 22nd 2009 3:08PM
I'll believe it when I see it.
John @ Aug 5th 2009 7:07AM
Go to google and type in "COX TIVO" - they were talking about doing this in mid 2006... It's been 3 years and they still haven't done it.
So I'm with this^ guy!
Heavytoka @ Jun 22nd 2009 3:25PM
Comcast Needs this, their boxes suck!
Jeff N. @ Jun 22nd 2009 3:37PM
TWC has awful HD DVR's. They need these boxes badly. It will help them immensely.
ajwees41 @ Jun 22nd 2009 4:26PM
Comcast already has this in some areas. they are not tivo boxes, bt what ever boxes your area uses. cox should be added to the list since they are testing it in NewEngland.
mikeb12345 @ Jun 23rd 2009 8:31AM
I have a ComcastTivo box, and while its better than the horrid default software in the Moto boxes, it isn't even close to being a real Tivo. I have a real TivoHD in the living room which blows away ComcastTivo in every sense (performance being the most noticeable) while the ComcastTivo sits in the bedroom, where it will be replaced by my current TivoHD as soon as Series 4/tru2way support comes from Tivo.
thedankone @ Jun 22nd 2009 8:16PM
can't wait to see the price on that! TWC loves to sodomize there customers, no grease or nothin.
ToddFSU @ Jun 22nd 2009 8:36PM
I hope Mr. VCR sues TiVo.
jgilson @ Jun 23rd 2009 3:01PM
The Comcast w/ Tivo service is quite possibly the worst cable experiment I've undertaken. The tech was at my house for almost 3 hours installing the crippled Tivo software onto my 2 Comcast dvrs. It would take 2+ minutes just to set a program to record. I returned both boxes within the week. Definately NOT worth the frustration. I've had a "real" Tivo in the past--no comparison.