Can TiVo Compete With "Free"?
Published August 26, 2003
One of the recurring arguments that the music industry makes about its legal campaign against file sharers is that they can't compete with free. This is, of course, crap, because you can compete with free with a superior product, service, convenience, etc. Now in the arena of DVR's, TiVo must compete with free against Dish Network:
- Dish Network will turn up the heat on TiVo today when it is expected to announce a promotion to give away digital video recorders to new subscribers.
The deal will last through January 2004. Existing customers can upgrade to the DVR receiver for $199, a Dish Network representative said.
Digital video recorders work like VCRs without a tape, allowing viewers to record programs to a hard drive for viewing later. DVRs also enable users to pause and rewind live television programming.
Despite building a brand name that has become synonymous with digital video recording, San Jose-based TiVo has trailed Dish Network in subscriptions largely because of price. A TiVo recorder still costs about $250 plus a $13 monthly service charge. Monthly fees range from $5 for DirecTV to $13 for other DVR service providers.
Dish Network's DVR service is included in its subscription fee.
"We want to take advantage of what TiVo has done out there with brand awareness," Soraya Cartwright, Dish Network's executive vice president, said. "No one has really been out there as much as TiVo when it comes to DVR. It's time for us to differentiate ourselves."
The free box — valued at $300 — contains a hard drive that can store about 100 hours of recorded television programming. It and the lack of an additional service fee is expected to put pressure on TiVo as it seeks to attain 1 million subscriptions. [Mercury News]
- Can TiVo Compete With "Free"?
- Published: August 26, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Video: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
- Eric Olsen's BC Writer page
- Eric Olsen's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
Wow, note to Phillip: this is exactly the case. So trackbacks are not dynamically generated on the page. Not necessarily a bad thing I suppose, if by design, but if not by design, then might want to add this to the 'check it out' list.
Happy coding to you :)
What are trackbacks and pinging?
Trackbacks are what you see above the comments section. They are a running record of blog entries written on other websites (or blogs) which are inspired by, or adding to, a blog entry.
For example, if you look at my entry above it relates to this blogcritics piece, so it shows as a trackback here. If you wrote something in your blog that related to this same TiVO topic, then you could ping blogcritics and the trackback to your information would show above beneath mine (chronological order).
Pinging is the process of one program notifying another program that it's there. It's the electronic equivalent of knocking at the door.
So what happened here was ...
I came here, read Eric's entry on TiVo and was inspired to write the entry linked above on my blog.
Then my blogging program allowed me to ping blogcritics with the details of my entry, including the link, title and excerpt so that others could follow, if interested.
Hope that helps ;)
Yeah, TDavid, the page isn't rebuilt after a ping like it is after a comment, and pings aren't included dynamically. There are a variety of possible "fixes" for this, and it's on the list. :)
More on-topic, I've been a DishPVR customer since I signed up. I paid $50 extra at signup and I pay nothing extra a month, and I love it. It's not Tivo, so I know I'm missing out on some features (like "Season Pass"), but it beats all heck out of a VCR and I can't imagine going without it now.
Maybe if they start promoting this, they'll actually get around to adding some new features. That would be cool...
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/7839)
Hmmm, this is one for the technical file. I pinged this with another tb entry quite some time ago and I saw it in the MT editor area, but it never showed up. Is it possible that it missed the cut? Or that no TB show up until after at least one comment is made? Just curious, thank you.