Am I The Only One Who Is Confused About TiVo’s New Pricing Plan?
I consider myself to be a smart person however, after spending 10 minutes reading through a very long thread on TiVo Community, I’m still confused about how the new pricing plan is going to work. Maybe somebody can help explain it to me. Here are some questions that I have:
Update 03/09 @ 8:29 AM: Stephen Mack (TiVoOpsMgr) has answered all of these questions in the comments. He has also put up a detailed post on his personal blog. Thanks Steve!
- Is the MSD (multi-service discount) still available? Yes or No? What if I already have two TiVos and I buy another one. Will I be able to add this new TiVo as a MSD TiVo? In other words, how much will I have to pay per month for the new TiVo?
- What happens if I get a TiVo for “free” and the device breaks after two months? Will TiVo send me a new DVR?
- Once the commitment is up do I have the option to go with a monthly based subscription?
- Why so many pricing options? Choice is great but at the same time you don’t want to confuse the consumer and discourage them from buying your product. How am I supposed to recommend a TiVo to my friend/family member when the pricing options are so damn confusing?
I’m sure that most of these questions have been answered in the TiVo Community thread however, after reading through the entire thread I’m still confused. Please help! Maybe an FAQ is in order!
Yup, that’s how I feel… if a fairly intelligent person with a decent grasp of TiVo is having a hard time understanding the pricing options will their target audience (new subscribers) understand all of this? How is the Best Buy high scool kid going to explain it? I bet many people will give up in confusion and get the cable company DVR for $10/mo at that point.
Hi Alex, sorry you’re confused.
When this is rolled out next week, you can let us know if we do a poor job explaining it, but I think that it will be very clear. (And there will be a FAQ!) The activation page will show the service-only pricing in a clear way, and the “Buy TiVo” page will show bundled pricing in a clear way.
Basically what we did today is announce two things:
1. New pricing options, including bundled pricing.
2. Product Lifetime will no longer be offered after Wednesday 3/15/06.
Everything else, including existing subscriptions, Multiple Subscription Discount, etc., is unchanged.
There are now two types of service pricing.
1. If you buy a new unit from TiVo.com, you can take advantage of the new bundled pricing, which combines service with a new 80-hr standalone Series2 DVR. See our press release for the pricing details, http://www.tivo.com/cms_static/press_82.html
2. If you buy a new unit from retail, or have an existing unit with no service, you can take advantage of our service-only pricing.
For service-only pricing, the existing monthly fee of $12.95 for a one-year subscription is unchanged (or $6.95 for a second-through-fifth unit in the same household if there’s already a full-priced unit on your account).
There are also going to be service-only prepay options for one, two and three years of service.
You ask if MSD still available? Yes.
(a) Existing MSD subscriptions are unaffected.
(b) You can still activate monthly service-only for $6.95 if you have an existing full-priced contract.
(c) The new bundle options and prepaid service-only options are not eligible for MSD, but they are full-priced so they do qualify any other monthly service-only contracts to automatically switch from $12.95 to $6.95.
You ask, “What if I already have two TiVos and I buy another one. Will I be able to add this new TiVo as a MSD TiVo? In other words, how much will I have to pay per month for the new TiVo?” The answer is $6.95, just like today.
You ask some questions about warranties. I answer that question here:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3842747&&#post3842747
You ask, “Once the commitment is up do I have the option to go with a monthly based subscription?” Yes. You can call us and switch to the service-only monthly pricing option of your choice.
You ask, “Why so many pricing options?” Testing showed that we needed to offer consumers a wide range of options to fit their needs. You don’t have to offer all options to every friend — for some friends, I’ll tell them, “Hey, you can now get a brand new 80-hour TiVo standalone Series2 unit for no upfront fee, just $16.95 per month for a three year commitment!” That’s a great deal. For other friends, perhaps someone who didn’t like monthly fees, I’d steer him towards one of the prepay options, depending on how long a commitment he wants.
Stephen,
Thanks for getting involved in the conversation. I really do appreciate it. Now that I have some of my questions answered, I feel a little bit better about the new pricing. I look forward to seeing what you “guys” put up on your site when this plan is officially launch. Please make sure that it is clear and that a lot of the questions that people have are answered. Thanks again for stopping by!
[...] Since I had already posted two entries (1st post, 2nd post) about TiVo’s new pricing plan, I didn’t plan on mentioning it again until next week when the pricing plan went into effect. That was until Dave Zatz (thanks Dave) sent me an email with a pointer to a thread on TiVoCommunity. In this thread, Stephen Mack (TiVoOpsMgr) goes into excruciating detail about the new pricing plan. In his post, Stephen, explains it in such a way that even I can understand it . Check it out if you still have some questions about the pricing plan. My guess is that Stephen probably answered them in this thread. [...]