Like other smart television platforms, TiVo’s had something of a revolving door policy when it comes to over-the-top services. Apps come, apps go – dependent upon business relationship, cost of upkeep (on aging platforms), etc. While TiVo has managed to keep the Netflix and Amazon tentpoles around, others such as Yahoo Weather, Dominos, and Rhapsody have all joined the deadpool. And, now, Spotify has exited, stage left. At least as far as Virgin Media TiVo subscribers are concerned. Granted, most TiVo apps aren’t updated at the frequency of other platforms, like Roku, and are comparatively slow to get going. In fact, when Spotify launched here, I did a little performance test… which was downright depressing. Yet, a notable TiVo marketing hook has been the merging of linear content and online services. So hopefully Spotify’s departure is limited to the UK and more a reflection of Virgin’s strategy (sorry, friends) than a foreshadowing of things to come here in the US on retail TiVo boxes.
(Thanks, Randy!)
If TiVo/Rovi can figure out how to deliver a Roku-like (or Amazon FireTV, or even AppleTV) OTT service on top of what they already have with DVR/timeshifting services, that could be huge! That would really be a “one box solution” for everything…
If they could go a step further, and allow the Roku, Amazon Fire, etc, to be able to handle in-home streaming from the TiVo DVR, and cut out the need for the Mini for those that don’t want the extra hardware, that would be even better.
But I know that does nothing to necessarily increase additional revenue by much, since many have a streaming box already, as well as a DVR of some sort….but if they could find a way to monetize such a solution, beyond their normal methods, it could be the best of all worlds!
One way to increase revenue, as has been suggested by many others, is to lower the cost to make it more palatable for the average person to want to invest in…. More people paying a lower fee would mean more potential owners and more advertiser revenue for the ads that they include. Sadly they price themselves at a point where only the existing, loyal TiVo fans jump on the bandwagon.
If they’re going the streamer route, they really need to be able to run Android apps – they haven’t had the clout to get development cycles from the content providers for their unique platform. They did indicate, they want to better monetize advertising (which is a significant revenue source for Roku).
I don’t know how much appetite there is for it, but if there was some sort of TV-specific App Store they could cultivate, similar to how Apple sells TV shows and movies, and have them play on your TiVo through the list (but streaming from a cloud server somewhere), that could bring in dollars if adopted. It would be cool to have my purchased shows, Netflix shows, Amazon shows and recorded shows all in one list…. Would be competitive, but a cool feature/function.
We’ve talked before about how TiVo could be a Ultraviolet client of some sort or do what Roku does with M-Go/Fandango — higher level placement for, presumably, a higher commission on video sales. Who knows!