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TiVo raises their rates

Holy cow. That's my first reaction to TiVo raising their monthly rates to as high as $19.95/month. The 1 year service plan will bump from $12.95 to $19.95, the 2 year will go to $14.95, and the 3 year contract will retain the $12.95.

I know why companies do this, but frankly these price jumps are way too big and may ultimately do a lot of damage to the company. I'm surprised that we're seeing another rate change given the last one bumped from $9.95 to $12.95 and feels like just a couple years ago. I guess they tested the waters with the earlier free-tivo-for-a-higher-monthly plans and figured they could raise the rate and do ok.

HDTVs are flying off the shelves making the series 2 boxes less important every day, but the HD series 3 boxes are already priced at the high-end home theater market. I'm honestly not seeing a lot of new customer uptake of TiVos at these price points and wondering why on earth TiVo did this.

Are they going to be a profitable company if they slow down their new customer acquisition? Is customer loyalty high enough that they can raise the rates and retain them? Did TiVo suddenly realize maintaining a huge customer userbase was a bad idea for the long term health of the company?

Engadget mentions another slap in the face to customers today: WPA wireless security is now supported, but only for the official TiVo wireless adapter. That's disappointing to see limited to one device.

by Matt Haughey November 6, 2006 in TiVo

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