http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/ Engadget Comments for The Engadget Interview: Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/
The big questions I have is why is Netflix putting the future of the company into downloads that require a TiVo box? What secret plan do they have? What will they do that MovieLink can't do now?

The whole Strangeberry secret is interesting too...

- Mike
www.HackingNetflix.com]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/
Alex
http://www.tivoblog.com


]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/
About half of their revenue comes from DirecTV and this deal will end in 2007. News Corp. which owns DirecTV also owns NDS which also makes TiVo's competition.

It is very likely that, even if TiVo renews its contract with DirecTV, DirecTV will also introduce the NDS DVR (probably without any DVR fee) along with the TiVo STB. This will heavily dent their bottom line.

What has TiVo done to get a deal for a cable company (such as Comcast)? As far as I know, Comcast is going with other DVR software manufacturers (e.g., iGuide, Moxi, MSTV FE, etc.).

And TiVo does not have the patent on name-based recording; ReplayTV does. TiVo does have a patent on "Season Pass", but some of their competitors (Moxi and MSTV FE, at least) have already come out an alternative. I doubt TiVo can depend on the patent system alone to survive.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/
Bite me, MPAA, and Tivo too!]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/
Great job with the interview.

Michael (aka, Xueilonox)
digitalmerging.la
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/
Mike is right on so many different levels. Broadband content delivery will become extremely important... not just for television and hit movies but by turning 500 channels into 500,000 channels.

The opportunity in the fragmented content world that includes everything beneath the current 500 cable/satellite channels (the tail, as it has become the recent catch phrase) is a huge collective market. Both Microsoft and TiVo would be wise to address this market and be the first to offer this content via their living room devices.

A print ad you might see in the future would look something like this, "Sure you can get 500 channels on your cable television box... but after you've finished watching the Yale interview with author Kurt Vonnegut, can you get the 2004 rock climbing championship from Joshua Tree California?" TiVo... your tv. Who you want, What you want, When you want, How you want it (did we mention without the commercials?)... Why would you want anything else?

There will be a huge market in organizing, monitoring and broadcasting this new media. Tools will be needed to filter content and create a truly unique experience. Guides will need to be written and monitored along with these search tools.

This new content will become a stepping stone for the most creative to be picked up by the traditional mainstream content distribution channels -- to be discovered so to speak.

As the hand held video content becomes avaialable to every creative college kid, new shows like MTV's jackass will be developed without the constraint of media censorship. This new content will be promoted both by word of mouth but as well as by tracking services like today's Technorati ranks blogs and their popularity.

It is going to be a very exciting time for television over the next 10 years.

Although as fantastic as the TiVo service is, it's numbers are still tiny comparred to the potential. Two million subscribers is just tiny. Microsoft even smaller. But Bill Gates is putting $20 billion into this living room initiative and that may change some things.

The biggest barrier to adoption of a living room PC, either Microsoft's MCE or TiVo's Linux based system (really it's a computer and not a set top box), is the initial cost and that consumers NEED A REASON to upgrade and adopt the technology. The problem is the chicken vs. the egg and herein lies the rub. Those that truly understand how great TiVo is already have TiVo. You hear over and over again... "I wish I had just bought it earlier... it's so fantastic."

HDTV is one reason to buy it and upgrade, especially as the sale of HDTVs is exploding. Unfortunately Microsoft or TiVo still haven't gotten this one right yet. TiVo is ahead of Microsoft with a satellite HDTV unit but Microsoft's MCE 2005 and it's limited OTA capability is not enough to drive the consumer to buy the machine.

Offering viewers alternative television programming at the smallest level is a reason to upgrade. We all are fanatics at something, hobbyists, enthusiasts -- fractured in our pursuits, but even more enthusiastic about them than television.

Initially research should be done to find the most profitable niches below mainstream television for maximum penetration.

As crazy as it sounds, you may be able to TiVo your kids' little league game and watch it later as someone on the team picked up the responsibility of videotaping it... or perhaps the Little League organization itself subsidises these tapings to promote their organization and bills the teams through the standard fees and dues. It could happen a lot of different ways once the delivery mechanism is worked out by Microsoft or TiVo.

To tap this market will drive the sale of these units. Whether Microsoft or TiVo tap it first via broadband delivery remains to be seen.

This idea is not original. The movie Dodgeball did a wonderful job of prediciting it with Dodgeball championship coverage from Las Vegas via ESPN8... which I'm sure will be broadcast over broadband.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/the-engadget-interview-mike-ramsay-ceo-of-tivo/
I also want support for HDTV and digital optical audio out! As soon as they implement these features I'll buy 2 TiVos!

I'd also like to see a "power user" model release with 2 or more tuners and hard drives in 1 box.

I wish consumer electronics companies would actually sell products with ALL the features consumers want and not want Hollywood wants us to have. The sooner they realize this the better we will all be.

Dave
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We're paying enough for TV as it is.]]>Jan 9th 2006 2:11PM