TiVo not flopped – people ‘intend’ to buy • The Register

TiVo not flopped – people ‘intend’ to buy

In talks with NTL after a shaky start

By Lucy Sherriff • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 2nd February 2001 15:40 GMT

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NTL and TiVo - of "pause live TV" fame - are said to be in talks after TiVo's product failed to set the world alight in the present buying frenzy before Christmas.

According to a report in The Independent, despite a massive marketing drive with BSkyB, TiVo is only selling a "couple of hundred" boxes a week. TiVo does not accept that the product has flopped, basing his assertion on brand recognition and "intending to buy" figures.

The boxes retail for £400 a pop, with a £10 per month subscription fee or a £600 all in price.

The negotiations with NTL would make the box available to the cable company's 2 million subscribers, the paper said.

One thing that could be discouraging potential Tivo owners, according to The Independent, is that the box collects data on viewing habits. The information goes back to Tivo who can then resell it. ®

Update: Unusually for a new technology company, TiVO has something of a loyal fanbase, and many have written in to clarify TiVO's data collection policy for us.

Reg reader and loyal TiVO owner comments:

I think it's very important to point out that TiVo only collects *aggregate* viewing information. That is, it doesn't know that "Lucy Sherriff watches Friends every Thursday", only that "12,000 TiVo owners watched Friends on Thursday".

Thanks to Mike deFreitas for clearing that up. One question though Mike, how did you know I watched Friends....