# Tivo Subscription



## elrothir (Dec 12, 2004)

I've been a long-time Tivo fan and, as such, have tried to talk several friends into getting a Tivo. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to convert a single one of them. The hold-up for all of them has been that they don't want to commit to a monthly fee for something they don't really know if they'll use that much. Now, we all know that once you try Tivo, you'll love it, but getting over that hump appears to be a major obstacle. I think it would help if Tivo would consider changing their subscription model.

It seems that Tivo's subscription model is based on cell phone plans. Tivo is providing a service, so you have to pay for it. And, to get people to buy, you offer the hardware up front for free, but lock them into a monthly subscription. It seems to me, and the friends I've tried to convert, that Tivo would do better to offer the guide data as a premium service instead of all-or-nothing. Why not make the Tivo be able to act as a VCR like the old S1 could do. Have people pay for the Tivo up front($200-$300) and give them one or two months of the premium service for free. Once they see how nice the guide data and other stuff is, when their trial period ends and they have to go back to manual recording, they'll be hooked and will understand what it's all about and will gladly pay the monthly subscription?

The people I've talked with said that they don't like that they can't use it as a dumb VCR if they didn't want the service. So, this seems like it could hook more people in. Just a thought.


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## LightMike (Mar 10, 2006)

I totally agree with you! TiVo needs to give people a more fair trial period. The All-or-nothing is really getting to me, because my brother and sister were VERY interested in buying TiVos because they heard about all the features from me and were amazed. The only reason they said no is because TiVo quit the Lifetime Membership plan.

I can understand how TiVo needs more revenue, but let's face it TiVo...without your customers you have nothing!

I believe that they should have two packages like this:

1) "Basic Lifetime Membership" ($300 Lifetime)
- Includes: Ulimited Recording of Shows, Minor basic feature (TV Guide, etc), Limited Season Passes, Limited TiVo-To-Go Recording Downloads to computer

2) "Premium Lifetime Membership" ($300 Lifetime / To unlock ALL features add $5 per month)
- Includes: Unlimited Recording of shows, TiVo-To-Go Unlocked, etc
*Offering the Premium Membership for only $5 / month will make the customer think like $5 is nothing & before you know it TiVo will gain the extra money they are looking for. Though before the purchase of any of service all feature are very limited. Let them use all of the features but limit how many recordings they can record....just enough for them to get aware of how to use TiVo while viewing all of the many features.

3) "Monthly Service"

There has been a lot of negative remarks about TiVo after the canceling of Lifetime Membership and the new Kid Zone feature when we were expecting simple features for a long time now. Tivo needs to understand that they need to be rolling out those new features at a faster rate and get back in the competition. They had a huge start over the other DVR companies out there today.


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## replaytv (Feb 21, 2011)

"The people I've talked with said that they don't like that they can't use it as a dumb VCR if they didn't want the service."
U can use a Tivo as a dumb VCR as long as it had service and wasn't connected to Tivo after the contract ended and it doesn't have the latest software. If U want someone to try Tivo, loan them one of your lifetime Tivos to use for a little bit. Set it up to record their shows for them.


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

> It seems that Tivo's subscription model is based on cell phone plans. Tivo is providing a service, so you have to pay for it. And, to get people to buy, you offer the hardware up front for free, but lock them into a monthly subscription. It seems to me, and the friends I've tried to convert, that Tivo would do better to offer the guide data as a premium service instead of all-or-nothing. Why not make the Tivo be able to act as a VCR like the old S1 could do.


Their business model is the equivalent to GM forcing you to subscribe to OnStar if you wanted to drive your car further than the street you live on.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

No, it's like buying a car and having to pay to put gas in it.


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

Hardly the same, not even close. You have to far better than that.


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## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

Arcady said:


> No, it's like buying a car and having to pay to put gas in it.


Agree. I think that was well said.


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## SuperGonz (Jan 14, 2013)

Tell ya what, I'm still mulling it over.

I've been using Frontiers (well, it's an older model Verizon) FiOS HD-DVR for several years now. Love its functionality. However, I wanted to upgrade my HDD since
40ish hours just wasn't enough. Because the Frontier customer service is abysmal, we ended up with two 746320s. Use the 30-day trial period, see if it's worthy of the expense.

A closeout price on the hardware made the difference. Now, to determine, will we earn our money back from $900. That's an awfully expensive service. Dropping the 2 DVRs, but adding 2 cablecards, it'll take about 54 months to recoup the expense. In 5 years, will the Premier 4 still be a worthwhile box?

Perhaps if Tivo were t drop the lifetime price to $299., they'd get higher sales. It is a big hit for a toy.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Remember, you can always sell a TiVo with lifetime on it for about what the lifetime service is worth, so once you get lifetime units, you pretty much just pay for new hardware whenever you want, and use the money from the old boxes to buy new lifetime.


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## SuperGonz (Jan 14, 2013)

I just turned down a Series 2 w/ lifetime ($25.00) because it's not
HD, it's not a digital tuner & (I forgot the 3rd reason).

By the time I cover the costs, will I be selling the Premiere for $25.00, and not
getting offers?


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

videobruce said:


> Their business model is the equivalent to GM forcing you to subscribe to OnStar if you wanted to drive your car further than the street you live on.


Pretty unhappy guy aren't you?


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

I meant upgrading to the next model. Not taking something from 10 years ago and trying to sell it. Also, there's a major platform shift from Series 2 to 3. You can still get $300-400 for a Series 3 with lifetime. Nobody wants a Series 2. But back in 2007 you could have probably sold the Series 2 for $300.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

I have done the upgrade and sell shuffle 3 times now. Each time Tivo releases a major new platform, once the new one is fairly stable, I jump in and sell the old one to cover the lifetime sub cost. Seems to be a year or two window in which it works each time but once a new gen is out, hardware 2 gens old drops value. Also the analog to digital shift has a big effect on series 1 and 2 units.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

deleted - sorry


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