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

Originally Posted by Chad

I'd imagine customers who get TiVo, but don't actually request TiVo will get it free of charge?

TiVo is both software and hardware. Saying TiVo will be rolled out to the whole network does not mean giving/charging everyone for one of the two boxes out at the moment.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Jameseh

TiVo is both software and hardware. Saying TiVo will be rolled out to the whole network does not mean giving/charging everyone for one of the two boxes out at the moment.

Yeah I know but I was concerned about the £3.00 charge for the TiVo EPG, or whatever the £3.00 covers. Surely customers who don't request a TiVo update won't be expected to pay £3.00 per month for whatever version of TiVo they eventually receive.

Wow the above post finally pulls this thread back on topic, or as close to is as it's been for pages now.....mainly due to my off topic posts

[zantarous]

Originally Posted by Chad

I suppose it all depends when they decide to roll it our to every customer. I'd imagine customers who get TiVo, but don't actually request TiVo will get it free of charge? TiVo will be a success if Virgin claw back their costs for development, production and marketing before they start rolling it out across the whole network.

Virgin didn't develop anything they licensed TiVo and had it tailored to their needs. Remember Virgin is just one of Tivos customers as they are rolling this out to some of the smaller cable companies in the US and Europe. Even the box is the same one several other European cable companies are using so they didn't even have a custom box made.

This would have been far cheaper then developing one in house and as other cable companies ask for more tailoring we can expect more features being rolled out to us.

---------- Post added at 22:32 ---------- Previous post was at 22:30 ----------

Originally Posted by Chad

Yeah I know but I was concerned about the £3.00 charge for the TiVo EPG, or whatever the £3.00 covers. Surely customers who don't request a TiVo update won't be expected to pay £3.00 per month for whatever version of TiVo they eventually receive.

Wow the above post finally pulls this thread back on topic, or as close to is as it's been for pages now.....mainly due to me

Remember that the EPG data is not provided by TiVo Virgin signed with Turbine who just happened to supply TiVo in the US. They could have signed with any number of providers for this service.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by zantarous

Virgin didn't develop anything they licensed TiVo and had it tailored to their needs. Remember Virgin is just one of Tivos customers as they are rolling this out to some of the smaller cable companies in the US and Europe. Even the box is the same one several other European cable companies are using so they didn't even have a custom box made.

This would have been far cheaper then developing one in house and as other cable companies ask for more tailoring we can expect more features being rolled out to us.

Then all Virgin will really be looking to claw back is the money they invested in the multi-million pound ad campaign for TiVo. Once they have covered the costs of marketing they might consider the TiVo roll-out across their full network.

That's some good info Zantarous, you clearly know your stuff.

[zantarous]

I think what would be more interesting to know is how many V+ box are out there versus standard V boxes. I would imagine that the V boxes are what the majority of customers still have.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by zantarous

Remember that the EPG data is not provided by TiVo Virgin signed with Turbine who just happened to supply TiVo in the US. They could have signed with any number of providers for this service.

Some more good info from you again. I'm learning some good TiVo facts in this thread this evening.

---------- Post added at 22:40 ---------- Previous post was at 22:38 ----------

Originally Posted by zantarous

I think what would be more interesting to know is how many V+ box are out there versus standard V boxes. I would imagine that the V boxes are what the majority of customers still have.

That would be interesting. Some of the Virgin staff who post might be able to help us out with some figures?

Originally Posted by Chad

That would be interesting. Some of the Virgin staff who post might be able to help us out with some figures?

Too many of Murdock's Men (probably the name of a show starting on Sky Atlantic soon) hanging around.

But in all honesty, why would the staff (at what I'd imagine is a risk to their jobs) give out those figures on this?

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by zantarous

I think what would be more interesting to know is how many V+ box are out there versus standard V boxes. I would imagine that the V boxes are what the majority of customers still have.

Originally Posted by Chad

That would be interesting. Some of the Virgin staff who post might be able to help us out with some figures?

This should give you some idea - up until last year the V+HD box was the only HD box Virgin had (from the quarterly results)

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

[Chad]

That's some interesting info Ben, thanks for sharing.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Chad

I'm not, seriously. I'm just trying to give an alternative opinion and view on this to provoke thought and debate. My opinions may not be liked by everyone, or even accurate, but that's the beauty of posting in a forum.

Yes thats why l love this forum because it brings people from different strands of society and backgrounds and we all have a voice although mine is a very quiet one compared to others.

[LexDiamond]

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.

The irony being that Sky Atlantic launch statistics would make even worse reading than the Tivo numbers.

You're data mining. You already have an opinion in your head and you are twisting perfectly acceptable numbers to try to prove a point.

I'm surprised you seem to have completely taken VM statistics out of context yet Atlantic continues to underachieve and that has 'pulling power'.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by LexDiamond

The irony being that Sky Atlantic launch statistics would make even worse reading than the Tivo numbers.

You're data mining. You already have an opinion in your head and you are twisting perfectly acceptable numbers to try to prove a point.

I'm surprised you seem to have completely taken VM statistics out of context yet Atlantic continues to underachieve and that has 'pulling power'.

Your right to poke holes in my opinions, I don't expect them to be agreeable to everyone. I don't agree with all of your above comments however you do make some fair points. I like your use of the term "data mining" I'm going to use that in future posts, it's got a good buzz about it.

Peace

[devilincarnate]

In regards to Sky Atlantic I have to say is keep it, as I think that the channel is a pile of ?.

The only channel that I want is SCUZZ as Kerrang has become too
Also METAL SHOULD BE FOR THE MASSES AND NOT THE FEW THAT CAN HANDLE IT.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by devilincarnate

In regards to Sky Atlantic I have to say is keep it, as I think that the channel is a pile of ?.

The only channel that I want is SCUZZ as Kerrang has become too
Also METAL SHOULD BE FOR THE MASSES AND NOT THE FEW THAT CAN HANDLE IT.

I know what you mean. Everytime I watch Kerrang it's not long until a Papa Roach or Linkin Park video is shown. Kerrang used to be fresh but now it feels like the same old stuff over and over again. I must admit however I do enjoy Drowning Pool "Bodies" which still gets played from time to time.

[Chad]

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!

I thought another price slash for TiVo was on the cards however now they seem to be giving it away to new customers:

http://shop.virginmedia.com/digital-...ze-m-plus.html

http://shop.virginmedia.com/digital-tv/tv-size-l.html

http://shop.virginmedia.com/digital-tv/tv-size-xl.html

I'm looking forward to the tickle campaign next month. I'm sure long serving Virgin customers who don't currently have TiVo will be rewarded for their loyalty by receiving a free 500Gb TiVo box, with free installation, to show Virgin truely value them just as much as new customers. Heck now that Virgin can afford to give TiVo away, maybe existing customers will be paid to take TiVO

I'm now out of contract with Virgin. If I cancel my service today, how long would I need to wait to be able to return as a new customer to take advantage of the above offers?