Tivo stops seling units directly, but O Canada is finally supported

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Tivo stops seling units directly, but O Canada is finally supported

On Saturday, a former employee of a company that handled all the TiVo.com sales let slip that TiVo is no longer selling units directly from their site, instead linking to Best Buy as the primary place to buy one. This seems like a good move to me, as it lets TiVo concentrate on its core business of software and support and lets retailers concentrate on sales of units.

In other TiVo news, it looks like they are officially supporting Canada, though it seems they aren't allowed to ship anything into the country so you kind of have to get one mailed to you from an American friend. It's been a long time coming for our Canadian friends and most of mine simply moved to a cable company-provided DVR as they waited for the past five years. I wonder what held TiVo back from Canada all this time? Are there stiff trade restrictions or tariffs that couldn't be settled or are the cable systems difficult to integrate into the software? [thanks Dave and Megazone for the links]

by Matt Haughey September 18, 2005 in TiVo

Comments

Could it be the language requirements didn't justify the market opportunity? As a former Canadian, I'm acutely aware of the difficulties that the Official Languages Act poses for US companies. They'd either have to set up another SKU (with French and English language in both the software and on the product) or make the SKU North American. Perhaps neither option was attractive.

Either that or TiVo HQ is just too darned far away from the Canadian border to realize that there is a market for DVRs there.

Posted by: Jamie at Sep 19, 2005 10:05:14 AM

I don't know why you think this is a good thing. This changes their customers from being everyday people to being large corporations like Best Buy who make lots of money of CD and DVD sales. This makes it much more likely that the software that TiVo develops will have even more content use restrictions.

Posted by: BradC at Sep 19, 2005 10:30:14 AM

TiVo outsourced the entire order process from their site so this doesn't free up any additional resources at TiVo at all. It just closes off a distribution channel. It's bad news.

As for Canada, I'm sure there are a ton of reasons. For starters, different requirements for copyright holders of CA-produced content. Plus they need to obtain listings from another source (unless TMS/Zap2It does full CA listings also).

Posted by: chris at Sep 19, 2005 10:48:30 AM

Metron North America, the company handling TiVo direct sales, went out of business suddenly last week.

Posted by: Tom at Sep 19, 2005 10:50:47 AM

It isn't bad news, unless you are associated with Metron. For TiVo it is really more of an inconvenience -- they'll have to find another company to handle their direct sales. In the meantime, I'm sure Best Buy won't mind handling the extra orders. But no distribution channel has closed -- you can still go to tivo.com, read about the box, compare prices, etc. You just go to Best Buy when you actually order. For now. It will most certainly be cleared up before holiday sales start to pick up.

Apparently Metron lost a big DirecTV contract in March, and has been struggling ever since. They handle a number of other brands besides TiVo: XM, Dish, Toshiba, etc., but apparently it wasn't enough. Too bad. A couple of hundred people lost their jobs.

Posted by: Chucky at Sep 19, 2005 11:29:47 AM

It does hurt TiVo short term in that Best Buy only sells the units - all the accessory sales, TiVo branded merchandise, gift subscriptions, etc, all were sold only through the TiVo Store and are currently unavailable. So TiVo will need to find a new partner, or take it in house, to restore those items availability.

But I'm confident they will.

Posted by: MegaZone at Sep 19, 2005 2:26:23 PM

I would be very surprised if they fail...this is the top product over the last 5 years!

Posted by: Todd Lokken at Sep 19, 2005 4:02:52 PM

But...then again...stranger things have happened. Todd Lokken

Posted by: Todd Lokken at Sep 19, 2005 4:03:26 PM

This stinks for people who, like me, won't give one dime to the cesspool that is Best Buy. Between this deal and the Macrovision brouhaha, TiVo is starting to look a lot more evil.

Posted by: Paul at Sep 21, 2005 9:00:17 AM

Paul -
I know it is terrible.... Now you might have to drive all the way over to amazon to get yourself a Tivo. With gas prices as outrageous as they are, this is so evil of Tivo.

I think they are out to get you. Maybe even personally.

Posted by: Tyson at Sep 21, 2005 9:20:11 AM

Gee, thanks for that insightful retort, Tyson.

Posted by: Paul at Sep 21, 2005 9:44:49 AM

Well, they definitely have Big Brother capability, and DO erase content without permission. We had the 3 month free trial where we got all the channels for the 1st 3 months at the same price as the Plus service that we ordered. During that time, we recorded a number of programs, all of which were mysteriously deleted the day after our 3-month trial expired (we went back to the Plus service). Without warning, all the content that we had recorded was gone - wiped out by Big Brother.

Personally, I think that sucks. I never realized that there were benefits to the 'dumber' DISH PVR (mainly, that it doesn't delete content wihtout permission).

Right now I am not liking nor trusting of TiVo nor DirecTV, and something tells me that technology is there for a reason.

Just my $.02.

Posted by: John at Sep 22, 2005 4:58:42 AM

of course it's there for a reason, and the reason is video on demand. tivo wants to offer movie downloads, perhaps via netflix, and the biggest hurdle to doing this is convincing the movie studios that people won't download a movie and keep it forever. unless the movie studios are convinced, tivo will never be a movie video on demand platform.

i understand people freaking about this a little but let's be realistic and recognize it for what it is. tivo is not going to allow broadcast tv to be redflagged until/unless congress makes it mandatory, but in the meantime if they don't have the technology in place, no movie downloads.

Posted by: chris maroney at Sep 22, 2005 8:03:12 AM

Great if 'O Canada' is supported (:-))...BUT

Am i to assume that if a Canadian (myself) bought a Tivo unit directly from BestBuy that they would then send the unit to a US colleague of mine and not to me directly...here in Canada?

Assuming that BestBuy does not have a way to send the unit across the border (even if it's just a consumer electronic device)and that i manage to use a US address for the destination of the DVR, how would arrange to send back the unit to Tivo while covered by warranty?...reverse step-process?...Does someone have/know the logistics for all of this...'cause right now, although the activation may be possible, the physical movement of the 'brick and mortar' feels quite complicated

TIA

Posted by: Jay at Sep 26, 2005 2:40:54 PM

I'm kind of excited by the fact that Tivo is finally available up here, and have friends who would be willing to help me get a unit. But all of the talk lately about changes to the service and functionality make me wonder if it's worth it now.

Should I just buy an off-the-shelf hard-drive based recorder, or is Tivo still worth getting after all of the changes its gone through?

Posted by: neil at Sep 27, 2005 12:08:33 PM

I've been on the phone with TiVo customer service three times in the last week, having ordered a wireless adapter for my TiVo. They've told me that they're moving their warehouses, and basically I placed an order at a time when I shouldn't have been able to. But that they will be selling things from the site again, after the move.

Interestingly, the first rep tried to tell me that the reason my adapter hadn't shipped yet was "becuase of the thing with Canada." I had no idea what he was talking about - and I still don't understand what one has to do with the other.

But it seems like they'll go back to selling directly again - although perhaps it is better left to the people who are good at it.

Posted by: Catherine at Sep 29, 2005 7:16:03 AM

I went to the TiVo site and tried to order a TiVo box and it took me through the same ordering process it did when I actually ordered my TiVo. So, it didn't send me to Best Buy and didn't look any different than it did six months ago when I ordered my Series 2.

Posted by: Gowan at Oct 2, 2005 10:14:43 PM

You can't put too much stock in call center answers...when you called Tivo Customer Care, and just like any other call center, you can get 5 different answers if you call 5 times.

Posted by: Todd Lokken at Oct 9, 2005 8:25:07 PM

I live in Canada. I picked up a Directv tivo unit while on a trip in the US a couple of weeks ago. One of the first steps in the activation process requires that the box call directv; a 800 number that I assume can not be reached from Canada. I thought, no problem I will purchase VOIP telephone service with a US area code to make this call and then use wireless networking from then on. BUT I have read that this first call must be made with an analog phone line or it wont work. Does anyone know if this is true or if there is a workaround? I assume the only reason it would not work is that Directv has done this to prevent Canadians from joining the service. I am not sure why Directv feels a responsibility to assist the Canadian government in denying the service to Canadians. Is there any other reason that an analog line would be required other than to detect Canadians using VOIP? I notice that tivo has local access numbers in all the major Canadian cities. Is it safe to use these numbers with your Directv tivo without getting shut down? If anyone knows the answers to these questions please post information.

Posted by: Grant at Oct 18, 2005 8:59:46 AM

Directv requires an analog phone jack so your phone line can communicate with Directv.The DVR
occasionally makes brief phone calls to get updates to the DVR service and showcases and for
you to be able to order pay-per-view movies,etc IMO -the THE main phone call function that helps them make all that money when folks order them.

Posted by: mojo2004 at Oct 26, 2005 9:03:51 PM

So, I'm confused. Can you buy the TIVO units in Canada or not? I can shop at BestBuy.ca but we can't order from BestBuy.com . Last time I checked there were no TIVO units at BestBuy.ca

Are there any other options? I REALLY wanna get hooked up but I'm not sure if I can. HELP!!!

Posted by: J. Pottle at May 26, 2006 8:58:21 AM

Tivo stops seling units directly, but O Canada is finally supported

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