∞ TiVo and Media Center on the decline

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ZDNet:

TiVo defined the DVR category around the turn of the century, and today the product name has been turned into a verb. If you’re going to record a TV program on your cable company’s DVR, you probably just say you’ll “TiVo it.”*

But name recognition doesn’t pay the bills. The TiVo product line is in a steep decline, a victim of fundamental shifts in digital media technology today. Those same trends explain why Microsoft has shifted Windows Media Center into legacy mode beginning with Windows 8.

Ed Bott points to studies and comments from Microsoft and TiVo that suggest that fewer people than ever are relying on TiVos and Media Center PCs to record and play back video, but the numbers don’t make sense. Comcast and other cable providers are pushing DVRs more than ever, and people certainly aren’t using VHS tape machines to record programming.


  • Anonymous

    There is a lot that could be better about TiVo in particular or DVRs in general, but I agree with you.  Mainstream Cable TV or even over the air programming is often time-shifted by DVRs.  A higher and higher percentage of DVRs are from the cable or satellite companies, though.

    CableCards needed to be easier to integrate from the get-go.  As it is, only the truly dedicated will bother to purchase and integrate a retail-purchased DVR.

    Ed Bott also shows the rise in Netflix subscriptions as compared to the leveling or fall-off in TiVo and MS Media Center usage.  I assume he is trying to connect the dots suggesting that a fall-off of DVR usage is directly tied to an increase in cord-corders getting entertainment via digital delivery over the Internet.  I suppose – but it is still a long ways off.  I stream from Netflix too, but my video entertainment is still 90% TiVo (fronted by Cable and OTA).

  • http://christophermeinck.com Christopher Meinck

    A good portion of the subscriber decline is due to DirecTV’s decision a few years back to no longer support TiVo. They are supposed to reintroduce support at some time, but it’s not clear when. Those will most definitely boost subscribers.

    Unless you’ve used a TiVo, I don’t believe that people are using that word as a verb. TiVo users certainly use the word as a verb and those users are also less likely to use a cable company DVR. It’s like telling Mac users in the nineties that a Windows PC is “just like a Mac”. 

    All of that in mind, I’m less than thrilled with TiVo’s new strategy of lower hardware costs/increased subscription fees to attract subscribers.

  • http://www.basilweb.net Anonymous

    We DVR everything. Don’t think I’ve ever used the term TiVo’d. I’ve always DVR’d it. We really don’t watch anything live other than news. We’ve got somewhere around 20 shows throughout the year scheduled into the DVR and we watch them all at our convenience.

    First we check the DVR, then we fall back to any myriad of TV shows available via Netflix on the Apple TV. I could also rely on On-Demand for many of our shows.

  • http://www.basilweb.net Anonymous

    We DVR everything. Don’t think I’ve ever used the term TiVo’d. I’ve always DVR’d it. We really don’t watch anything live other than news. We’ve got somewhere around 20 shows throughout the year scheduled into the DVR and we watch them all at our convenience.

    First we check the DVR, then we fall back to any myriad of TV shows available via Netflix on the Apple TV. I could also rely on On-Demand for many of our shows.

  • http://www.basilweb.net Anonymous

    We DVR everything. Don’t think I’ve ever used the term TiVo’d. I’ve always DVR’d it. We really don’t watch anything live other than news. We’ve got somewhere around 20 shows throughout the year scheduled into the DVR and we watch them all at our convenience.

    First we check the DVR, then we fall back to any myriad of TV shows available via Netflix on the Apple TV. I could also rely on On-Demand for many of our shows.

  • Anonymous

    If I miss something, or forget to record it, it’s almost always available to watch online. 

    • Anonymous

      On demand viewing (whether via s cable or satellite offering, or Netflix or Hulu or network and other websites) is probably the biggest contributor to DVR decline. That is only going to accelerate going forward.