Satellites Shoot at TiVo
June 24, 2008

But they don’t want you to skip the commercials either. Really.

Satellite-television companies like DirecTV and Dish Network are trying to further differentiate themselves from cable and telco operators by offering something every attention-deficit stricken TV watcher would want – a digital-video recorder.

Throughout the next few years, satellite companies will be the primary reason why DVR ownership in the U.S. will jump about 75% within the next four years, research firm Strategy Analytics said this week.

Such growth would appear to spell bad news for TiVo, which has boosted earnings in recent quarters but is still suffering a year-over-year subscriber decline because of an expiring contract with U.S. satellite leader DirecTV. TiVo is also in a legal scrap with Dish, winning a patent-infringement decision against the No. 2 satellite company before Dish sued back last month for statements TiVo made about the case.

Still, TiVo’s trying to stay one step ahead of the game by pushing its high-definition DVRs, which launched last August at a retail price of $299. TiVo also started working with cable-television leader Comcast in January on providing Boston-area subscribers with DVRs featuring TiVo service.

As the television announcer would say, stay tuned, though you’ve probably already fast-forwarded through that part.

Posted by Danny King on June 24, 2008 | Comments (0)