Rupert Drops DVR Fees!

[Scott Greczkowski]

Wow just as Dish Network announces all its new DVR's may be subject to a DVR fee, Rupert Murdock has announced that hes dropping DVR fees from his BskyB service!

If he does this when he gets control of DirecTV, Dish Network may be playing catch up.

Read about it here

 

[James]

meh, I don't pay one anyway because I have TC Premier. Still less cost is a good thing.

 

[A_Noland]

Anyone know how many direct Tivo's D* has out?

 

[Dgenx321]

E* doesn't need to charge for the buggy DVR software in the first place.

I could imagine if they tried to charge me for the DishPlayer. I'd taken the damn thing and would have thrown it out the window as soon as the D* was installed.

 

[METFAN757]

Anyone know if the Sky+ box uses Tivo software or does Sky write their own? If they write their own then that sounds like Dish. If they bring their technology to Direct then Tivo people are going to be very unhappy.
Of course all of this is pure speculation on my part.

 

[Stargazer]

And if they write their own over there then they may try to do the same with DirecTv to have no fee to compete with cable and Dish Network. Dish Newtwork would not be able to get away with charging the fee as well as they had before if DirecTv decides to not charge for the fee in the future.

 

[dishrich]

Anyone know if the Sky+ box uses Tivo software or does Sky write their own? If they write their own then that sounds like Dish. If they bring their technology to Direct then Tivo people are going to be very unhappy.

Here's another link to a different version of this story:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3408105

News Corp. "owns all the pieces to replace a large part of what TiVo brings to plate," said May. He noted that News Corp.-controlled company, NDS Group Plc already supplies a TiVo-like service called SkyPlus to Murdoch-controlled British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. He said Murdoch may tap NDS to create an alternative to TIVO for DirecTV also.

Well, if this was to happen, (god forbid) I can see us Tivo fans being outragged - a "Tivo-like" service could mean almost anything, but I just can't see it having the key merits of what makes a Tivo a Tivo. (Hell, we could just go over to the 3rd rate software that E* is trying to pass off on their new "DVR fee" :x ) If this was to happen, I could see myself ditching D* & going to a standalone Tivo, dual-tuner or NOT!

And FWIW, I don't pay a Tivo fee either, since I bought the $199 lifetime fee a couple years ago - since I had bought it over a year before D* took over & lowered the monthly fee, I still got my money's worth out of it.

 

[rtt2]

I can see TiVo being offered as a premium service and the News Corp service being offered as a free service. TiVo would differentiate itself by offering ease of use and better user interface and funtionality.
This would allow existing TiVo users to stay with TiVo and future users to have choice between futre offerings of TiVo and News Corp.

 

[Peluso]

I can see TiVo being offered as a premium service and the News Corp service being offered as a free service. TiVo would differentiate itself by offering ease of use and better user interface and funtionality. This would allow existing TiVo users to stay with TiVo and future users to have choice between futre offerings of TiVo and News Corp.

Good Point! To take it a step further they could segment the product offerings by making the TiVo receivers available only through higher end A/V retailers so they have something to differentiate there product.

 

[8bitbytes]

Earlier this summer, Business 2.0 magazine had an article discussing mergers and buy-outs. Tivo was a discussed item in this article with several different potential buyers who may take Tivo in a different direction.

 

[James]

I do like my DirecTiVo, but as long as the PVR has name based recording and doesn't crash, i'd be fine with whatever software they use.

I'd love to get the uptime on my TiVo. I can't remember the last time I restarted it.

 

[Stargazer]

I think some Dish customers want a choice between Tivo and Dish DVR's but DirecTv would offer their own version for free while Dish would offer their own version for $4.99 a month. If Dish would offer a Tivo option they would probably want $9.99 for it instead of dropping their $4.99 a month fee but may not be able to compete well enough if they done this.

 

[Bob Haller]

I am very happy about this news from rupert. Originally sad the merger failed I now see it as a great thing.

Wonder what charlie though hearing this news? If it stands DVR fees are on their way out.

 

[Ken_F]

The broadcaster is scrapping the £120 a year subscription fee to Sky Plus for customers spending at least £30 a month on its subscription channels

So Sky customers get free PVR service if they have ~US$48 worth of programming...

 

[Bob Haller]

E should buy TIVO, and market E TIVO as a premium feature rich service.

 

[James]

Buying TiVo would cost a ton more than it would have to buy ReplayTV. Anyway I doubt Sony or any other brand that uses TiVo would want that.

The solution for Dish is license TiVo. You can download the changes to the Linux kernal here, but not the part that makes TiVo, TiVo.

 

[Guest]

E should buy TIVO, and market E TIVO as a premium feature rich service.

Now that would be cool if they did that. It would be the smartest move that Charlie ever did. Then they would finally be able to have a Dish Tivo dvr. Then the Tivo software could be downloaded to all current dvrs and they would wipe out the competition. Imagine Dish's guide and organized channel order with Name based search features.

 

[Peluso]

I've always felt that E should have a premium service with premium receivers. Target the premium stuff to the highest level dealers that creates value in going to the little guy.