New TiVo with broadband TV portal continues attack on Foxtel and piracy

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 26 November 2009 17:11

Opinion and Analysis

Partly Channel 7 owned Hybrid Television Services, licensee of TiVo for Australia and NZ, has announced an upgraded 320GB model from December 1, and a new selection of free and paid on-demand programming, along with ISPs that unmeter TiVo download content, to counter the Foxtel and piracy alternatives.

The quest to provide an attractive TV programming sales and/or subscription service has moved up a notch in Australia with Foxtel launching its new HD and new channels package, along with legal video download service, and now TiVo has made its Australian move with a beefed up hardware and content package.

While Foxtel charges what can end up as sizeable fees for the whole package, TiVo in Australia charges no subscription fee but a higher once-off retail purchase price and the ability to access a wide range of free and “fairly priced” on demand video from a new “proprietary broadband entertainment portal” called “CASPA On-Demand”.

Tivo’s hard drive has grown from 160GB to 320GB, which is a doubling in size but a far cry from a 1TB hard drive, with even Officeworks currently selling a 1.5TB WD Elements drive for AUD $159.

Still, Hybrid says the larger drive helps users better cope with all the existing “Freeview channels including [the] new digital channels such as 7TWO, Go!, One Sport and the pending ABC Kids channel, ABC3.”

Still, 320GB it is, priced at $699 and comes free with a “Home Networking Package worth $199”.

Hybrid advises that the “Home Networking Package provides three additional capabilities: 1. Allows TiVo owners to transfer their Freeview TV recordings from their TiVo device to their PC or portable devices such as an iPhone, iTouch or Playstation Personal (PSP); 2. Enables family photos, music libraries and home videos to be enjoyed on the TV; 3. Provides the ability to transfer and view recordings between two TiVo devices in the home” – all of which are pretty cool things to be able to do.

The existing 160GB TiVo will remain on sale at $599 but you’d be totally mad to get it when the $100 dearer version gives you double the recording space and that nifty Home Networking kit. I guess there’s old 160GB stock they need to get rid of.

CASPA On-Demand is arriving on Dec 1 and gives “TiVo customers will access to new release and library movies, hit TV programs and music videos, concerts and music artist interviews.”

In Q2, Hybrid says that CASPA will have “both free and pay-per-view content with advertiser-funded content playing a significant role from Q2 next year”, and that, at launch, “there will be more than 1000 hours of broadband content available through the TiVo device and the content portfolio will continue to grow with cumulative hours reaching in the tens of thousands over time.”

Given that there are Australian ISPs which will unmeter TiVo content, as some do for iTunes, ABC iView and others, and given that it’s a hassle free, legal and paid alternative to BitTorrent and other illegal downloads, albeit without the massive range that piracy offers, it’s now a more interesting contender in a world of Foxtel IQ2’s and Apple TV, iTunes, iPod Touch, iPhones and Macs, BigPond TV and Movies, let alone the newly released Sony PS3 PlayTVs and the Xbox 360’s TV show and movie download capabilities.

The battle between TiVo, Foxtel, Telstra’s T-Box, Windows Media Center, PS3, Xbox 360, other PVRs and Internet piracy continues on page two – please read on!