TiVo and Best Buy alliance to yield co-branded DVR, TiVo software on Insignia and Dynex TVs

by Thomas Ricker posted Jul 9th 2009 at 6:17AM

It's all pending an official announcement later this morning but both the New York Times and San Jose Mercury News are reporting that Best Buy and TiVo are forming a "broad partnership." Under the multi-year alliance, Best Buy will "heavily" promote TiVo products at its 1,100 stores across the US. TiVo, for its part, will develop a special flavor of its set-top box that will be sold in Best Buy stores and lets the retailer advertise its products and services directly to TiVo subscribers -- items can then be purchased via the TiVo remote. The alliance goes even deeper as it will see TiVo's software and search tools added to Best Buy's own-branded consumer electronics (like Insignia and Dynex HDTVs) and Best Buy's Napster music service will become available to TiVo subscribers on their TVs. While this all sounds like a win-win for the two corporations, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers says that the Best Buy-customized TiVo with Napster won't likely arrive until "early next year" while the inclusion of TiVo's interface on Best Buy's Insignia or Dynex TVs is even "further out." Until then the benefits for us, the consumers, are less clear.

P.S. That's our mock-up above of what we imagine the Best Buy TiVo will look like.

Update: Aaaand, it's official.

[Via ITVT]

Read -- San Jose Mercury news
Read -- New York Times

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Tags: alliance, best buy, BestBuy, dynex, insignia, napster, tivo

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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Adam @ Jul 9th 2009 6:34AM

That's great and all...but can we get the rest of the UI updated to look like the new Tivo Search Beta...make it faster too!

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OneLove @ Jul 9th 2009 10:33AM

media center is my tivo.

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Dbs143 @ Jul 9th 2009 6:38AM

just what i want to look at every time i sit down and relax to watch tv...a best buy logo!

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jivetrky @ Jul 9th 2009 12:27PM

So you watch your DVR box and not your TV screen?

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Rabid_Squirrel_Inc @ Jul 9th 2009 6:59AM

I always find Tivo news painful. It's something like 7 years since Tivo abandoned the UK. I still have my original box working will no doubt have to move to sky+ when it finally dies.

Come back Tivo - we miss you!

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bartoron @ Jul 9th 2009 7:57AM

Now will I finally be able to buy a Monster Cable-approved TiVo?

And if I can't figure out how to set it up, I can pay $500 for Geek Squad to do it for me! Oh, joy!

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Todd K @ Jul 9th 2009 8:48AM

You know, if I can get the Geek Squad to deal with the inept Comcast technicians when they install the cable card, it might be worth it!

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jesterselv @ Jul 9th 2009 8:07AM

way to water down your brand TiVo. Im sure thousands of people will be so impressed with the colors of your GUI and the mismatched ad right next to their selection, they will tell many new friends about their new BesTiVo and NOT just get a cable company DVR.

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freediverdude @ Jul 9th 2009 8:49AM

Please tell me that Tivo isn't going to lower themselves to the point of putting their logo on a Dynex TV.

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UnixSystemsEngineer @ Jul 9th 2009 9:09AM

I still don't get how TiVo can charge good money for the box, charge a monthly fee for every single box in your house (or a hefty lifetime subscription that doubles the price of the device), not innovate much lately, and STILL not be wildly successful.

TiVo is synonymous with DVR, yet the massive pricetag of buying 2 TiVo HD's, swapping out the disks for something decent-sized, and paying for subscriptions for both, has kept me using a craptastic Comcast Motorola DVR. Sure the menus suck, the devices are slow, and they randomly hang. But hey, the Comcast 'rental' fee is barely more than the TiVo subscription fee for the schedule alone. And I only have to pay one bill, not two.

Come on, TiVo. Drop the subscription fee and your sales would go thru the roof. We all are looking for excuses to ditch the cable company DVRs.

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Jordan @ Jul 9th 2009 10:08AM

Everybody I know would love to drop their cable company DVR and get a TiVo but complain about the subscription rates. Think about it though..how is TiVo supposed to continue providing you service if they aren't making any money? How are they supposed to pay their employees? If you want to argue that if you pay subscription fees that there shouldn't be any ads, well I will agree with you on that, but I would rather pay a subscription fee for a far superior service than to pay hidden fees to my cable company for their crappy boxes.

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Sporkinum @ Jul 9th 2009 10:30AM

It's like Microsoft with Live "Gold" for the Xbox 360. If you can get enough saps to pay for it, why quit?

I have a PC I bought cheap ($250) that came with Vista Home Premium and a tuner card. It does a fine job of DVR duty and there is no recurring fee. Sure, being Windows, it flakes out occasionally, but it really is pretty decent.

Neutral

hulse_kevin @ Jul 9th 2009 10:35AM

It remains to be seen how long Tivo can last with it's strategy of suing competitors rather than improving it's own product.

It doesn't matter what the fanboy excuses are for Tivo's ongoing recurring fees for each individual unit are. They bite and they give Tivo an upfront competitive disadvantage that gives even long time users reason to look elsewhere.

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UnixSystemsEngineer @ Jul 9th 2009 12:02PM

@Jordan,
I was deliberately vague because I don't have any insight into TiVo's finances and have never owned one -- I just comment as a prospective customer. I've gotta believe the price for the box covers cost to build plus R+D, based on the prices of other consumer electronics devices and what we know about the included hardware. The guides cost *next to nothing* to publish these days -- the marginal costs were MUCH higher back when they needed banks of modems all over the place to serve up that data.

TiVo customers would probably buy a new box every 3-5 years, especially if they didn't also pay a subscription fee, so this would be their recurring revenue. And selling to a massive chunk of (at least) America would go a long way towards providing money to continue to develop program guides.

And the XBox Live Gold comment only makes it more obvious -- why can Microsoft give me Gold service on my 360 for $50 PER YEAR when the resources involved are orders of magnitude greater.. but TiVo (last time I checked) wanted to take me for more than twice that much, just for a little programming info? I mean, hell, I rarely play XBox, but I keep paying the $50 per year because the cost is low enough to not worry about.

And how is the fee I pay my cable company for their crappy Moto DVR "hidden"? It's $15.95 a month, right there on my bill. TiVo wants $12.95 a month *just for the guide* if you pay monthly, or $10.75/month if you pay annually. Granted, I have no 'annual' option with my cable company, but come on. The numbers simply don't add up in TiVo's favor.

If they need to charge $100 more per box to guarantee profits on each and every box they sell and cover program guides for (say) 3 years per box, so be it. People will pay more for a premium product, but they don't want to pay more for a premium product *and* pay a hefty monthly fee on top of it.

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Boyo @ Jul 9th 2009 9:50AM

I love TiVo but Hate Best Buy- I feel like my best friend is dating a ugly fat bitch in a blue polo.

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Jordan @ Jul 9th 2009 9:59AM

Though I'm glad this may bring more recognition to the TiVo brand - because those of us who use it know it's the best - that Best Buy logo on the front is hideous. Why take a sleek looking piece of hardware and slap that crappy logo on it? Buying Insignia branded stuff is bad enough...now having the Best Buy logo on products, makes me wish Circuit City was still around.

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