Filed under ‘those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it’, TiVo and Seven are repeating history Down Under. The recently introduced Australian Home Networking Package runs $200 AUD (~$150 USD) and enables TiVoToGo, Photo & Music sharing from PC, multi-room viewing, and provides the TiVo Desktop Plus software for video transcoding. Ozzie TiVo HD clock in at $699 AUD, with 7 day over-the-air (Freeview) EPG and no fees. So a motivated customer who buys two TiVos would be “rewarded” with a $150 fee if they’d like to transfer shows between units as we freely do in the US.
TiVo’s been down this path before here in the US… In the early Series2 days, expanded DVR options, such as multi-room viewing and PC photo streaming, were upsold as the TiVo Home Media Option (HMO) for a flat $99. Given TiVo owners are already paying a hardware premium, at some point the company wisely dropped that fee to market these features as a value-add.
It’s probably obvious where I stand on this business model. But I don’t claim to be an expert on the Australian television marketplace. And there’s a variety of financial considerations at play as Seven discusses in their surprisingly frank and interesting pricing FAQ:
TiVo in Australia is not owned by TiVo Inc in America. Hybrid TV is the licensee for the TiVo service in Australia and in exchange for that right – we pay TiVo a license fee on everything we sell and we often also have to pay 3rd party license fees for the Australian region. Obviously in America TiVo does not pay itself a royalty so their price is lower. These license fees add to the cost of our products here in Australia. This is a normal business arrangement between any licensee and licensor – nothing unusual.