With little fanfare, TiVo quietly retired their Amazon Fire TV client application a few weeks ago.
After two years of successful adoption, the beta program of TiVo for FireTV has come to a close. As of November 2017, the app has ceased its current functionality and will no longer be available for new downloads from the Amazon Marketplace in the coming days. TiVo and FireTV technologies have grown and changed quite a bit since our release of this beta application in 2015. To best support these advances, we’ve made the difficult decision to end support for the existing beta application. We at TiVo are committed to incorporating your beta program feedback so we can provide a truly optimized experience for today’s Streaming Video technology and user needs.
While it’s sad to see it go, the app really wasn’t very good. And, so once again, the TiVo Mini remains the DVR’s lone TV extender option, compared to say Tablo, Plex, or even Comcast that provide clients for boxes like Roku and Apple TV. But it’s been a tumultuous time at TiVo, punctuated by a shifting strategy and integration a new (inferior) guide as part of the Rovi acquisition. Yet, all is not lost, as my old pal and former colleague Ted Malone has been brought in to potentially turn around TiVo’s retail fortunes. And, on the app front…
(Thanks Andrew!)