TiVo backed out of deal with Comcast
Ok, now we understand why TiVo CEO Michael Ramsay was "promoted" out of his job last week. You know how people have been telling TiVo how the only way they're going to survive would be to convince some a cable company to license their digital video recorder software for use on set-top boxes? Yeah, well according to the New York Times last summer they were about to score a big deal with Comcast to do precisely this, that is until Ramsay pulled the plug at the last moment because he was convinced TiVo wasn't getting paid enough money or given enough control over the service.
We won't second guess his decision, since we don't know the exact terms of the deal (though apparently they were pretty bad), but you know what, TiVo is sort of in a life-or-death situation right now and might have to take what it can get if it wants to stick around. The company is still not turning a profit, they're facing increased competition from all sides (from cable companies with their generic DVR-capable set top boxes, Digeo's Moxi, and Microsoft's Media Center OS, not to mention stuff like MythTV and Beyond TV), and having deal like this in place would have been especially valuable in the wake of their recent break up with DirecTV. Now it's Microsoft and Digeo who are testing their software with Comcast and TiVo that's being left out in the cold. Ramsay says his strategy was to make an end-run around the cable companies and focus on turning the TiVo into a digital entertainment hub (i.e. "convergence", i.e. the same thing everyone else claims to be working on), but now he's out (at least as CEO, he's staying on as chairman) and it's unlikely that whoever succeeds him will have the luxury of grand visions: right now they're going to have to focus on ensuring that TiVo is still in business a year from now.
