Murdoch could speed DVR adoption -- Motorola exec

[John Corn]

NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Media maverick Rupert Murdoch (News) could help speed the adoption of digital video recorders after his News Corp Ltd.(Australia:NCP.AX - News) gains control of satellite provider DirecTV, a Motorola Inc.(NYSE:MOT - News) executive said on Tuesday.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/031209/media_murdoch_dvr_1.html

 

[dlsnyder]

Currently, DirecTV offers a subscription DVR service by TiVo Inc._(NasdaqNM:TIVO - News), which requires users to pay up-front for the set-top box, as well as pay a monthly fee. Industry analysts have suggested Murdoch can afford to cut prices on the boxes, or simply give them away.

If D* were to start giving away Tivos that might be enough for me to say "adios" to Dish. I still don't have a PVR of any kind but it looks like that is the one I want. My sister can't stop telling me how great it is. She says it has made her a better parent because she can now pause a program to take care of her childrens' needs. I'm glad she's my sister and not my mother!

 

[James]

I dont' read it this way. I read it as dropping TiVo and putting a crappy DVR in its place.

 

[silversurfer]

I kind of agree with James on this one. Why would a Motorola exec care what D* does with their boxes unless Motorola wanted to get a piece of the pie? I don't necessarily see Tivo being dropped. I think a Tivo box will be D* version of a premium DVR while Motorola or some other company will make a cheaper no frills DVR.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have always wanted Dish to offer regular Dish DVR's for no monthly DVR fee, and offer customers to upgrade to Dish DVR+ Service powered by Tivo for a monthly charge.

That would be the best of both worlds.

 

[MikeD-C05]

That is what I have been wanting too, Scott. I think then Dish could justify the dvr fees if they had Tivo like Software. Then I would be happy as a clam. They could even offer upgrades to the Tivo like software for the older receivers(508/501/721) and then they could even start a fee for these receivers too. Then if they would just charge the dvr fee per household account then everyone would be happy.

 

[James]

Well maybe Dish will do something like this because I see nothing in Murdochs past that leads me to believe he'll keep TiVo for any longer than he has too.

 

[dishMIKE]

So is there a snowball's chance in Hawaii that cheapskate Charlie would ever strike a deal with TIVO?Thanks,Mike

 

[MikeD-C05]

Only if Charlie would buy the Tivo company so he could still charge the fee to the customers and still keep all the profits. Really not a bad idea. Now if he would buy Voom sat for all Dish's future hd we would be all set.

Doesn't Dish still have a lot of money left over from the failed merger and buyout attempts?

 

[Stargazer]

Dish is not going to just sit there and let their customers or potential customers go to DirecTv because of a DVR swapout. All DVR fees would have to go away or they would have to increase functionality of the DVR's to have an optional DVR fee.