TiVo HD on sale in Australia from 29 July at $699

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 01 July 2008 11:27

Your IT - Entertainment

Seven Network has launched to long-awaited TiVo HD PVR saying it will go on sale, exclusively initially, in Harvey Norman and Domayne stores around Australia on 29 July.

However stores will have working demos on show within the next two weeks and the publicity will start with the next Harvey Norman catalogue due to appear in letterboxes and in newspapers and magazines in the next few days.

Wireless broadband ISP, Unwired Australia, now a Seven subsidiary, will support sales and distribution of TiVo units to both retail and online customer "using their significant expertise in sales, retailing, distribution and logistics" according to Seven However post-sales customer support will be provided by Harvey Norman.

Unlike the TiVo sales model in some countries there will be no ongoing fee. However Seven expects to generate an ongoing revenue streams from interactive advertising, but has to date given no details of this.

The unit comes with two HD tuners enabling two shows to be recorded while previously stored material is viewed from the disc. It is able to store up to 20 hours of HD content and 60 of standard definition and from 2009 an external hard drive will be offered to increase capacity. Also available, for $59, will be a WiFi adaptor enabling the unit to be connected wirelessly to the home broadband service.

The unit, as expected, is being launched in time for the Beijing Olympics but only a matter of days before the start, and the focus wil be on using Seven's exclusive coverage of the games, and the massive audiences this will attract, as a key promotional opportunity to raise awareness of the product and drive sales in the run up the next major event in Australian TV viewing, Christmas, according to James Warburton Seven Network's director of sales.

The TiVo is being positioned squarely against the Foxtel IQ, but according to Warburton it is no contest because, despite paying large monthly subscription fees for pay TV, the majority of Australians watch free to air. He claimed that only 30 percent of Australian households subscribed to pay TV and even among those 50 percent of viewing time was of free to air content. "They pay in excess of $100 per month for pay TV content but spend 60 percent of the time in prime time watching free to air."
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