TiVo Launches New Set-Top Box, Has Web TV Features
Huzzah! TiVO’s launched a new flavor of its set top box, the “Premiere” edition. The box, which will run for $300, is notable in that it’ll include simpler functionality for Netflix, YouTube and other online video streaming services. It’ll also help go through local television listings easier as well.
The basic “Premiere” model will hold 45 hours of HD content, whereas the more expensive $500 model will hold 150 hours.
A Reuters article I read on the subject brought up a good point – what’s the incentive for buying a TiVo if your cable company’s offering a cheap generic DVR? Apparantly TiVo only has 1.5 million subscribers, a number I’d figure would be much higher for the impact the product’s made on our culture. Suddenly, time shifted viewing’s gone from “rich people’s luxury” to “affordable necessity,” as the price of including a generic DVR with your cable is often much cheaper than buying a TiVo + TiVO subscription.
Point is: this new toy may not do much to turn new people onto TiVo, but hey, diehards will get a sweet new toy! Six of one, one half dozen of another.
Source: Reuters
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