TiVo Stops Selling DVRs: What Happened to the Company That Once Dominated the TV Industry?

By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man – Follow me on X.

TiVo tells Variety that it stopped selling DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) on October 1, ending a 26-year business which once was a cultural touchstone and major player in the TV industry.

The company says it will continue servicing DVRs still in homes and that its software is still available in select televisions.

“TiVo no longer manufactures hardware, and our remaining inventory is now depleted, though we will continue to offer support for the products going forward,” the company said in a statement to the entertainment publication. “We are very proud of the TiVo DVR legacy, and the great experience TiVo has always provided lives on in our TiVo OS for Connected Televisions, which is available on televisions from Sharp in the US and multiple brands throughout Europe.”

What Happened to TiVo?
TiVo’s exit from the DVR business will likely not be a major headline today, even in entertainment journalism. But TiVo was once arguably the biggest thing in television, perhaps in all of entertainment. The HBO comedy, Sex and the City, devoted an entire episode to a character’s addiction to the little DVR. Characters in other shows such as Friends and The Sopranos would name-drop TiVo relentlessly. And Americans, famous and not, would stop saying they would record a show; no, they would say they ‘TiVo-ed’ it.4K TV DealsEntertainment center.

TiVo’s popularity among entertainment elites was not an accident. To generate free publicity, the company distributed free receivers to numerous celebrities.

“These are people who are influential with consumers and who have a big impact on pop culture,” TiVo executive VP Brodie Keast told Fast Company magazine in 2002.

Many businesses have tried this technique in the past, and since, and failed. But TiVo succeeded in winning Hollywood’s heart because it was a great product. The DVR service, which sought to replace the clunky VCR, enabled you to pause live TV and record 80 hours of programming without a videotape. Then FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who is not prone to gushing, called TiVo, “God’s machine.”Online TV streaming servicesEntertainment center

Why Did TiVo Stop Growing?

But TiVo was never able to turn buzz into buys. After the first five years of relentless marketing strategies, TiVo had just 700,000 subscribers.

Yes, subscribers. You had to pay a monthly fee, ranging from $10 to $13 in addition to the cost of the box which was $249 in 2003.

That was problem number one. It was too expensive.

Second, the company placed too much emphasis on retail sales rather than focusing on licensing and partnerships. Consequently, cable TV operators launched their own DVR services, which sharply limited TiVo’s growth potential.

Sex and the City on HBO devoted an entire episode to a character’s TiVo addiction.

If a cable subscriber already had a DVR service, why buy a TiVo?

They didn’t.

Third, TiVo still had to compete with the dinosaur VCR. In the early 2000s, most consumers were still happy with the VCR, particularly when they heard that TiVo required a monthly subscription. The VCR, which TiVo and DVR rival, ReplayTV, sought to replace, was still in more than 90 percent of U.S. homes.

Consumers didn’t believe the VCR was perfect; the 12:00 blinking light on the receiver’s front panel was an American cliche. However, most viewers were comfortable with the VCR at the time because it was cheap to buy and relatively simple to use. Pop in a tape, hit record or play and you’re done.

So why spend $200 to $500 on a new TV recording device when you already have one that works? Plus, the DVR required thata monthly subscription fee and couldn’t play back those stacks of videotapes sitting around most U.S. living rooms.

TiVo eventually abandoned the all-retail sales approach and began licensing the DVR to TV providers such as DIRECTV but it was too late. TiVo never became a mass product, and it certainly never took over the world, as so many predicted it would. Like so many tech fads, it never broke through phase one.

And like so many tech fads, TiVo’s DVR business is now no more.

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