# What's cost of a Lifetime to TIVO (Company, not us)



## desiboy (Oct 3, 2007)

What is it?

1) server space? 
2) bandwidth? 
3) Local number setup & load on it? 

Cant be EPG, it is same for all.

So why the aversion to Lifetime? Especially those who already have one? 

Any thoughts?


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## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

revenue stream

A 3 year sub or month to month is realized in monthly revenue, providing easier revenue projections.

Also product upgrade, you are less likely to upgrade your box to a newer version if there is a un-transferable sub on it.

Although there are some people that need to be on the bleeding edge of technology, imagine if a car company sold a bumper to bumper lifetime (for the car) warrantee....you would probably drive it till its dead vs buy a new car every 3-5 years....the car company would be losing out on new sales.

Basically those with lifetime subs on a older box get thier tivo service for free (given the price of a 3year sub vs lifetime) - zero revenue stream to Tivo from these subs.

It would be interesting to know how many Lifetime subs there are that have broken even as a percentage of total subs.


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## MikeMar (Jan 7, 2005)

andyw715 said:


> revenue stream
> 
> A 3 year sub or month to month is realized in monthly revenue, providing easier revenue projections.
> 
> ...


It's funny, I have 3 series 2 tivos

1 lifetime and 2 multi discount

I had the 2 monthly upgraded (so i had 2 extra 40 gig hd's)

I was using the lifetime as a dummy box downstairs to just transfer shows down to (so the 40 gig stock was fine)

That actually died last month (After about 3 years)

LUCKILY I just popped one of the old ones in there, clear and delete and I was good to go again.

had I NOT had the hard drive, I might have canceled one of the monthly ones and taken that drive out and into the lifetime.

Not sure the point of my story but It's easy to keep a lifetime going because most of the time it's just the hard drive that dies.


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## desiboy (Oct 3, 2007)

andyw715 said:


> revenue stream
> 
> ...
> 
> ...


The original question remains: what is NPV of $300 to TiVo today for already Lifetime owners given their company's borrowing rate and cash flow situation.

The cost I see (other than a staff working on next gen) is local telephone line capacity. The ones online, next to no cost.

I cant see the rationale for not allowing to current Lifetime owners:
1) Specials for Lifetime transfers ($100 sugg)
2) Specials for Lifetime ($300)

I have a Lifetime'd ReplayTV & S2. I'd like to get TiVoHD and pay up 4yrs worth (considering NPV) once rather than pay monthly

One bright spot: In Nov 07 ReplayTV will introduce and USB2 HD stick. I plan to get a sub $200 computer and get on with my quest for HD PVR.


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

desiboy said:


> One bright spot: In Nov 07 ReplayTV will introduce and USB2 HD stick. I plan to get a sub $200 computer and get on with my quest for HD PVR.


You do realize that the *only* think that USB stick has in common with your old ReplayTV box is the logo, right? DNNA took the name and slapped it on all-new PC-based software, which has been badly panned by reviewers. And that USB stick is an OEM stick you can get elsewhere today - it is nothing special.

If you're going to go with a PC as a DVR, use Beyond TV or some DVR package which is far better than the junk DNNA is slapping the RTV logo on these days.


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