Davis Freeberg

Blockbuster Streaming Comes To TiVo, But Service Won't Reach Many Consumers

That's just it, your hang up on the number of devices is preventing you from seeing the real trend that happening. Let forget a minute about when we get to the future and look at this news from the context of how we get there. On it's own, the announcement is nothing new, nothing revolutionary and as you point out only available to a small audience, but the ripple that these decisions make is very exciting. TiVo may only have a small stand alone base, but there are a lot of DVRs out there and they've clearly been in front of many trends. Online scheduling, TiVo to Go and support for online video are a few things that consumers can get, if they actively seek it out. This makes it harder for the other 25 million DVRs to continue to keep their systems closed. Maybe it means that they start experimenting with cable everywhere or approved video content like Epix, but sooner or later they will have to respond.

From the perspective of Blockbuster, the arrangement highlights their willingness to not be exclusive. Earlier their digital strategy was to build a Blockbuster only box, now they are competiting on the same platform as Netflix, Amazon and the whole internet. It may only be an early example of this, but other Blu-Ray manufactuerers and connected TV makers will look at it and say hmmm maybe we can offer multiple choices for consumers instead of just one. This is very different from the cable only model where they absolutely want to be the only provider.

What the agreement really means for consumers though, is that they can now get Blockbuster digitally without having to buy special equipment. If they own a TiVo, it's there whether they are a potential customer or not. It's like Blockbuster was able to open a new video store without the cost of rent, staffing and what not. Maybe it's only 50,000 buyers, but how much does that cost them to replicate in real life? As more and more HARDWARE devices start supporting digital video it will drive demand for streaming services. Right now, it's all experimental, but if you look at where we are in the microchip area, we'll see a handful of connected tvs come out this year, but a healthy percentage of them coming out in 2010. Eventually most TVs sold will include an internet connection and that is what's so exciting about all of this. Consumers will have these choices presented to them when they buy products that they are already consuming. It's not a revolution as much as an evolution. Blockbuster's ability to show that it's committed to competing on these platforms opens up new video stores among each partners. So what if Samsung only ends up selling a couple million Blockbuster enabled TVs, it will still be allow Blockbuster to offer content to a community that wouldn't otherwise seek them out. When does the future happen? I'd argue that this is just a glimpse but that in two years, the majority of electronic devices will be connected and those passive consumers who've been reluctant to try digital delivery will finally understand the potential.

Blockbuster Streaming Comes To TiVo, But Service Won't Reach Many Consumers

You are missing the forest for the trees. For someone who is so up to date on the future of video, you seem to misunderstand the potential for hardware. For so long a small handful of companies have controlled tv content. Now that linear television is being challenged, strategies must change to be successful. The broadcast networks of the future won't be restricted to certain areas like cable is or have to worry about time slots because it's all on demand. Ushering in this change is a mass proliferation of devices and solutions. It may only be 1 million subscribers that Blockbuster can reach, but those are subscribers who aren't as likely to go to a video store and who wouldn't shop with Blockbuster otherwise, if they didn't go to the customer. When Netflix launched support on Blu-Ray players how many people who bought the Blu-Ray were actually customers? I'd argue a very small percentage when you look at Netflix's overall penetration rates, but each device that they partner with introduces them to another series of micro audiences able to consumer their content. Whether we're talking about the Xbox, Roku or TiVo, these devices start to add up. You can be unimpressed by Blockbuster's entry into the consumer electronic world, but don't overlook the significance of this change in strategy. They may be a year or two behind, but this sort of partnership will be what end up defines digital video.

TiVo Slides Upon Report of Subscriber Losses

The company didn't say that their sales would be $59 million, they said that their service and technology revenue would be $59 million. It's not fair to exclude their hardware revenues and then say that they gave lower revenue guidance for the next quarter. Not mentioning the hardware revenue was very subtle, but something a lot of people have missed.

TiVo: No Longer Hot

It's easy to kick a dog when he's down, but much more difficult to buy when everybody believes things are getting worse. It's no longer a question of whether or not TiVo is hot, it comes down to valuation and that is where I think the street is getting this wrong. TiVo's growth numbers were weak, but anyone who didn't already know that this would be the case has no business owning this stock. It's one thing to say that you don't like TiVo's business, but quite another to assign a number to that. I'd rather see more posts focusing on actual valuation, then to just jump on the TiVo bashing bandwagon. Does slowly growth really matter all that much, when TiVo is already priced like a value stock?

TiVo's Infamous Banned Ad Revealed

I got a good chuckle out of it. The irony is that TiVo would never have been able to go public if the networks hadn't invested so heavily in their stock. They got hit twice by TiVo, once in the .com burst and now as ad money is moving away from the 30 second spots.

Motorola Shopping for a Middleware Company?

Ohhh I'm sorrry, the answer was Netopia, Netopia was the answer that we were looking for, and how much did they wager? $208 million in an all cash deal Alex.

www.chron.com/disp/sto...

Microsoft Media Center To Benefit From Movie Download Craze

Sorry Barta, but I'm going to have to disagree, the iTV will be a huge flop. For years Apple fans have been calling for Jobs to introduce an Apple with a TV tuner and if they were doing that then I might agree with you, but Moviebeam has already proven that people don't want to pay $300 to have the privaledge of paying for TV. As for wireless keyboards already being around, I agree with you, but try plugging that wireless keyboard into your TiVo and see what happens. Absolutely nothing. TiVo needs to bring the internet to the TV exactly so that I can watch iTunes on it and YouTube and whatever content you crave.

You can say that Microsoft is still a geek product, but the numbers don't lie. This year alone Microsoft will sell more Media Centers then TiVo has sold DMRs in the last 7 years. To date no one has solved the last 10 foot problem and with the lack of content available online, it will take an internet enabled DVR before we see this solution. To date, Microsoft has the only solution. Oh and Myth too, but that really is a geek product.