TiVo Announces A New Price Plan And Gets Rid Of Lifetime Subscription
TiVo has announced a new price plan (press release, PDF)whereby the DVR is included for “free” in the monthly service fee. Here are some details on the new pricing structure:
- $16.95/month or $469 prepaid with 3-year commitment
- $18.95/month or $369 prepaid with 2-year commitment
- $19.95/month or $224 prepaid with 1-year commitment
Each of these monthly fees include an 80 hour Series 2 TiVo. The new pricing structure is supposed to go into effect next week.
Along with this news, TiVo has also announced that they are going to get rid of the lifetime subscription plan. In my opinion, this is the biggest news from today’s announcement. The lifetime subscription plan allowed anybody to pay some cold hard cash up front and never have to send another dollar to TiVo. I really think this was a mistake on TiVo’s part. I understand why they did it however, die hard TiVo fans like having the lifetime subscription as an option. Like Dave Zatz said, we’ll just have to wait and see what the market thinks…
March 8th, 2006 at 9:17 pm |
What will be the new pricing plan for the second Tivo in a house? It is currently $6.95.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:22 pm |
I have another question:
Does the new pricing plan mean that 3rd. party Tivo’s will no longer be available, or only available via Tivo or Comcast, etc.?
In other words, will DVD burning units, such as the Humax and Toshiba units be available?
Thanks,
Alan
March 8th, 2006 at 9:46 pm |
Discussion has continued on TiVo Community. It appears as though a lot of people are irritated with the new plan.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:53 pm |
According to TivoOpsMgr and TiVoPony, the MSD (multi-service discount) will not be offered from this point forward. If you currently take advantage of the MSD then you are fine. Correction: It looks as though the MSD option is still available. I consider myself to be a pretty smart guy however, this new price plan is rather confusing. Are other people confused or is it just me. I just spent the last 10 minutes going through TivoCommunity but, I still don’t feel like I understand it! The average consumer isn’t going to have the time or desire to read 13 pages on TiVoCommunity. Frustrating!March 9th, 2006 at 12:57 am |
TiVo knew they were losing out with this… in fact, they apparently ammended their secondary pricing fine-print sometime recently to not allow a TiVo to be the $6.95 if your primary hasn’t called in in a few months. This was bad news for people who bought lifetime subs, had the unit fail, and were paying $6.95/mo on the new unit.
March 14th, 2006 at 12:29 am |
With this TiVo price change, I wonder if people with multiple lifetime subscription boxes can make few bucks by auctioning them on eBay?
Do you guys think someone will pay $469 for a lifetime subscription TiVo box?