TiVo : Is the TiVo charge now £3 per month on all TV packs?

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by Chad

That's poor if the info posted previously is accurate:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11...h-page-17.html

Apparently Virgin ramped installs up to 1000 per day. If this info is true then either Virgin are falling way behind with their installs or demand is drying up. Virgin should be way ahead of 50,000 installs at the moment.

Also put this into perspective, if all of Virgins 3,800,000 TV customers take a TiVo box, at 550 installs per day it's going to take 19 years for Virgin to finally provide a box to every customer

I would be more concerned about holding onto TIVO customers , they need to vastly improve their HD offering , its all well having the tech but the content will always win out for most people.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

I would be more concerned about holding onto TIVO customers , they need to vastly improve their HD offering , its all well having the tech but the content will always win out for most people.

From my recent posts people will think I've got a problem with Virgin but that's not the case. I'm a very happy customer however I'm concerned Virgin have all their eggs in the TiVo basket.

I totally agree with Muppetman, content is king especially in HD. Also Virgin should not under estimate the pulling power of SKY Atlantic.

I feel with TiVO Virgin are trying to telling us what we want when in fact what the majority of customers really want is new channels, not a fancy PVR.

[devilincarnate]

It seems that you go away for a while and it all goes pear shaped?

[telegramsam]

Originally Posted by Chad

From my recent posts people will think I've got a problem with Virgin but that's not the case. I'm a very happy customer however I'm concerned Virgin have all their eggs in the TiVo basket.

I totally agree with Muppetman, content is king especially in HD. Also Virgin should not under estimate the pulling power of SKY Atlantic.

I feel with TiVO Virgin are trying to telling us what we want when in fact what the majority of customers really want is new channels, not a fancy PVR.

Hence the reason why I`ve got rid of virgin tv and got sky+ HD. I told the guy on the phone when cancelling my reasons and he really didn`t seem at all bothered,as if he`d heard it so many times before.

[HDFootyMan]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

I would be more concerned about holding onto TIVO customers , they need to vastly improve their HD offering , its all well having the tech but the content will always win out for most people.

Agreed, there's a couple of programmes on CBS Action which I'd love to watch, but I can't despite owning a next-gen PVR.

Not sure what to make of The TiVoed 50,000 (so much for my speculated figure of 97,000 a few pages ago ). I'm sure now the price has gone down, VM will continue to get new customers for it, and fair play to them and their advertising campaign, there's even a big VM/TiVo poster just down the road from me.

But more content, more apps, and less misplaced series links at weekends () would be a big plus.

As for HD:

We currently have around 3.8m TV customers, of which 1.7m or 45% are able to experience HD after having a further 131,000 customers take an HD set-top box in the quarter.

Even my Dad has got a HDTV after moving back to VM from Sky, Sky Living HD looked great on his Sammy 46".

---------- Post added at 18:36 ---------- Previous post was at 18:34 ----------

Originally Posted by clinteastman

Creating £1.8 million in extra revenue over the year on the extra £3 alone!

Most of which (if not all) goes to TiVo.

---------- Post added at 18:37 ---------- Previous post was at 18:36 ----------

Originally Posted by Chad

Also put this into perspective, if all of Virgins 3,800,000 TV customers take a TiVo box, at 550 installs per day it's going to take 19 years for Virgin to finally provide a box to every customer

We might have Sky Atlantic by then.

[alwaysabear]

Originally Posted by Chad

From my recent posts people will think I've got a problem with Virgin but that's not the case. I'm a very happy customer however I'm concerned Virgin have all their eggs in the TiVo basket.

I totally agree with Muppetman, content is king especially in HD. Also Virgin should not under estimate the pulling power of SKY Atlantic.

I feel with TiVO Virgin are trying to telling us what we want when in fact what the majority of customers really want is new channels, not a fancy PVR.

I would agree with you and muppetman!

[devilincarnate]

Content may be king but I would prefer quality and not a load of ? over the channel listings. I was a SKY customer for 13 years before coming back to VM (in one way shape or form) and would never go back to SKY. Can i just add if the channels come they will and if not get a grip and weigh up your options and move?

[Chad]

I'd be interested to find out how many of the 50,000 are new customers to Virgin and how many were already existing customers.

I'm sceptical regarding future sale figures as Virgin have already targeted their high end paying TV customers, who are likeliest to take TiVo, during the soft launch period and so far only 50,000 have the service. The further 25,000 who currently await installation, judging by posts on this forum and other sites, seem mainly to be VIP and XL customers who are reacting to the price drop. I just can't see Virgin having success selling TiVo to M+ and L TV customers. To get the most out of TiVo you really need TV XL plus SKY Movies and SKY Sports to fully justify the cost of the box, £3.00 per month charge and potentially a 18 month contract.

It's a premium product which has already been targeted at premium customers and has had poor results.

Maybe Virgin will drop the £3.00 charge for all customers by next quarter?

[zantarous]

Your reading far too much into the number of Tivos installed. the price reduction just happened a few weeks ago, you are always going to have a higher number of people preregistering. You cannot really tell anything from just three months worth fo sale considering the TV and press advertising only started last month.

12 months will give you are far better view of the long run.

Most of which (if not all) goes to TiVo.

i have seen this posted time and time again but no one has ever provided any evidence of it? They used to pay liberate for middleware for their other STB but that cost was always included or are you suggesting the £5/10 V+ fee was paid to them?

[Chad]

Originally Posted by zantarous

Your reading far too much into the number of Tivos installed. the price reduction just happened a few weeks ago, you are always going to have a higher number of people preregistering. You cannot really tell anything from just three months worth fo sale considering the TV and press advertising only started last month.

12 months will give you are far better view of the long run.

Your spot on. Whilst Virgin are reporting a loss of 21,200 TV subscribers, and SKY are set to report 60,000 new TV customers when their results are announced on the 29th July, it's going to be a very interesting 12 months for both Virgin and TiVo.

I still think Youview, which should launch in 6 months time will have a big impact on both Virgin and SKY. Competition and choice are great. I wonder if SKY Anytime+ coming to Virgin soon is an attempt by Virgin & SKY to jointly muscle Youview out of the market before it even launches?

[robtuk06]

Originally Posted by Chad

I'd be interested to find out how many of the 50,000 are new customers to Virgin and how many were already existing customers.

I'm sceptical regarding future sale figures as Virgin have already targeted their high end paying TV customers, who are likeliest to take TiVo, during the soft launch period and so far only 50,000 have the service. The further 25,000 who currently await installation, judging by posts on this forum and other sites, seem mainly to be VIP and XL customers who are reacting to the price drop. I just can't see Virgin having success selling TiVo to M+ and L TV customers.

Both myself and my parents are on M+ and both have TiVo now.

To get the most out of TiVo you really need TV XL plus SKY Movies and SKY Sports to fully justify the cost of the box, £3.00 per month charge and potentially a 18 month contract.

Can't agree with that at all. People want TiVo for different reasons. You don't need ANY package to justify it if you just want more recording space.

Secondly, you need the full package to justify the cost of the box? That is nonsense. It costs the same as V+ and is cheaper than the £5/month charge for V+. By your logic, nobody but people on the full package should want V+ either.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Chad

Well the results are in:

http://investors.virginmedia.com/ima...DetailsID=1112

Page 5:

"The strong early demand for this service has matched our high expectations and, as of 26th July, we had approximately 50,000 installed TiVo customers."

As posted about 3 weeks ago on this thread I suspected Tivo was not a major sucess so far, and these figures prove it. 65,000 pre registers in April, plus a price slash at the beginning of this month and so far only 50,000 TiVo's have been installed. Got to remember there are people posting here and other forums who have 2 and even 3 TiVo boxes so it's not as if 50,000 unique customers have taken the service. Plus there was a couple of thousand customers who received TiVo free at the start too.

Poor, poor results. Maybe Virgin should refocus their attention to HD channels and other content. I suspect another price slash for TiVo will be coming soon!

Sorry Chad but how are they poor results as tivo is still in its infancy and remember they have only just started to sell to new customers.

---------- Post added at 20:42 ---------- Previous post was at 20:41 ----------

Originally Posted by Jameseh

Why would they even contemplate that? Its cheap-as-chips as it is.

Yes what do people want do they want it for nothing.

---------- Post added at 20:44 ---------- Previous post was at 20:42 ----------

Originally Posted by Chad

That's poor if the info posted previously is accurate:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11...h-page-17.html

Apparently Virgin ramped installs up to 1000 per day. If this info is true then either Virgin are falling way behind with their installs or demand is drying up. Virgin should be way ahead of 50,000 installs at the moment.

Also put this into perspective, if all of Virgins 3,800,000 TV customers take a TiVo box, at 550 installs per day it's going to take 19 years for Virgin to finally provide a box to every customer

l suspect in a year your thoughts will be very different on the tivo Chad.

---------- Post added at 20:46 ---------- Previous post was at 20:44 ----------

Originally Posted by muppetman11

I would be more concerned about holding onto TIVO customers , they need to vastly improve their HD offering , its all well having the tech but the content will always win out for most people.

And l am sure in the next few months there will be quite a bit more added to the tv package.

---------- Post added at 20:48 ---------- Previous post was at 20:46 ----------

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

I would agree with you and muppetman!

Pessimism seems to be the order of the day today with several legendary forum members and my advice is just be patient.

[Chad]

Good points by both Robtuk and Denphone, different people will view this in different ways. Clearly I have different views from you guys, and probably the majority of other users on here too. That's what makes this site great, everyone has a view and contributes to the debate.

You guys enjoy your TiVo, I'll wait until Virgin drop the price further or start offering it free before joining the club. Alternatively let's come back to this in 12 months time when we will clearly be able to tell if TiVo has been a massive hit, or costly flop. By the way you've probably noticed I love telling people I told you so

[denphone]

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

I would agree with you and muppetman!

Pessimism seems to be the order of the day today with several legendary forum members and my advice is just be patient.

---------- Post added at 20:52 ---------- Previous post was at 20:50 ----------

Originally Posted by Chad

Your spot on. Whilst Virgin are reporting a loss of 21,200 TV subscribers, and SKY are set to report 60,000 new TV customers when their results are announced on the 29th July, it's going to be a very interesting 12 months for both Virgin and TiVo.

I still think Youview, which should launch in 6 months time will have a big impact on both Virgin and SKY. Competition and choice are great. I wonder if SKY Anytime+ coming to Virgin soon is an attempt by Virgin & SKY to jointly muscle Youview out of the market before it even launches?

Most of Virgins customer losses are down to students cancelling their services for the summer.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by denphone

Most of Virgins customer losses are down to students cancelling their services for the summer.

So Neil Berkett claims. The end of the next quarter should see the 21,200 customers return, and plenty more joining for TiVo. Next quarter looks like it's lining up to be a bumper one for Virgin.