Comcast/Tivo Marketing in New England

[SeanTivo]

As part of the earnings announcement yesterday, Tivo said that Comcast was now Marketing Tivo to their New England Customers.

I live in Boston and I've seen the Tivo produced commercial one time but no other marketing at all. And I have 2 Comcast accounts in New England. No marketing calls, no inserts in my bills, no email ads, nothing.

Has anyone in New England seen the marketing that Tivo is talking about and if so, what is it?

Thanks

[Daven]

Has anyone in New England seen the marketing that Tivo is talking about and if so, what is it?

Thanks

As a matter of fact, several of my relatives and acquaintances that live in some of the "upper crust" towns and neighborhoods on the South Shore have received solicitations.

Perhaps the marketing is targeted, and you simply don't meet the demographic threshold they are looking for. Or perhaps you simply live in a bad part of town.

--Mainer

[Rebate_King]

I have seen commercials, I have received inserts in my monthly bills, and I have received emails (however I registered to receive TiVo news via email).

Comcast is marketing TiVo, at least to me.

[jfh3]

My nephew received an upsell when he called in to add Showtime and said the rep was pretty high on Tivo. He specifically asked if it was the Tivo software and she said yes. I found it amusing, because his primary box is a Tivo HD with a couple of CableCARDs, and, as most people know, the Moto box would be a downgrade, even with the Tivo s/w.

I asked him about flyers and inserts and he said there might have been one, but he didn't recall. But I guess there have been some newspaper ads.

[SeanTivo]

As a matter of fact, several of my relatives and acquaintances that live in some of the "upper crust" towns and neighborhoods on the South Shore have received solicitations.

Perhaps the marketing is targeted, and you simply don't meet the demographic threshold they are looking for. Or perhaps you simply live in a bad part of town.

--Mainer

Dave, most people wouldn't consider Abington "upper crust". What type of "solicitations" were they?

Thanks

[SeanTivo]

I have seen commercials, I have received inserts in my monthly bills, and I have received emails (however I registered to receive TiVo news via email).

Comcast is marketing TiVo, at least to me.

What commercials are you seeing? There's been 1 commercial posted to Youtube that was produced by Tivo but so far none by Comcast that I'm aware of.

Can you describe the commercials you're seeing?

I just opened my 2 February bills and all I got was an updated chart of channels and a flyer noting the free HBO + Cinemax weekend 3/20 - 3/23. What does your flyer say?

I receive the monthly Comcast On Demand pitch email but so far none about Tivo. I also signed up for news about Tivo but have gotten nothing.

Can you post one of those Emails?

Thanks for the help.

[boxerboys]

I too saw the commerical finally; was on TLC I believe.

I have said this before and will reiterate; how can Comcast begin promoting/soliciting for this service when it is not ready (my opinion). Although the actual number of "issues" are relatively low (which is great for a first release) the magnitude of the issues are going to cause a bad rap for TiVo (more so than Comcast as the users will perceive the issues to be TiVo).

Unless the firmware update resolves the continued green screens (I have tried all the suggestions on these boards yet they continue 2-3 times a day), random 8888s, and slow guide peformance I still believe this product should be in Beta. I am anxiously awaiting the update.

My new Windows MediaCenter HTPC with CableCards is on its way so this will most likely be going back in favor a default DVR for backup purposes (and OnDemand).

[SeanTivo]

I too saw the commerical finally; was on TLC I believe.



Was that the Tivo produced "Dopy guy on the couch" ad? I thought it was a good ad but it was obviously produced by Tivo. I'm still waiting for a Comcast
ad campaign.

Have you gotten any other type of "solicitations" or have you heard of anyone else you know getting any?

Thanks

[Daven]

Was that the Tivo produced "Dopy guy on the couch" ad?
Thanks

Trying to keep track of your royalties for appearing an that spot? Face it Sean you justy are not seeing the ads that other people are. Give it up.

--Mainer

[SeanTivo]

Trying to keep track of your royalties for appearing an that spot? Face it Sean you justy are not seeing the ads that other people are. Give it up.

--Mainer

Dave, the response here hasn't exactly been a landslide. You have some mythical "solicitations" that you've already talked about on the investor board but no specifics.

Everyone here should know that you have a "vested" interest in Comcast pushing Tivo. Is it 58,000 shares you control via an options trade? A trade that you are under water on right now.

And with your options, the clock is ticking. This needs to happen now for you or you lose everything.

If I had that much money riding on this I'd lie about it too.

[Daven]

Sean-

Stock talk is not allowed on this board. I guess I'll have to bring you to the attention of the moderator.

--Dave the Mainer

[SeanTivo]

Sean-

Stock talk is not allowed on this board. I guess I'll have to bring you to the attention of the moderator.

--Dave the Mainer

That was more of a comment about you and your motivation to make something up than a comment about stock prices.

I'm still waiting for someone to describe a Comcast produced commercial, a bill insert or produce an email from Comcast that markets Tivo.

You have noted some mythical "solicitations" received by people other than you. For someone who paid to have 36 pages of a court document faxed to them and then scanned and posted it to a web site is it too much to ask for you to be a little more specific?

I stand by my assertion that what Tivo said about Comcast pushing Tivo to their 2 million New England customers is nonsense.

[Daven]

For someone who paid to have 36 pages of a court document faxed to them and then scanned and posted it to a web site is it too much to ask for you to be a little more specific?

.

Actually, they were mailed as a hard copy, not faxed. By the way, you are quite welcome for the information, I hope you found it useful. As far as providing you with further information, I'll not share my valuable resources with someone that retorts with accusations of dishonesty, and questionable motive. My financial stake in the company notwithstanding, I, like most here, would be interested in seeing a company I do business with succeed in their undertakings.

Dave the Mainer

[SeanTivo]

Actually, they were mailed as a hard copy, not faxed. By the way, you are quite welcome for the information, I hope you found it useful. As far as providing you with further information, I'll not share my valuable resources with someone that retorts with accusations of dishonesty, and questionable motive. My financial stake in the company notwithstanding, I, like most here, would be interested in seeing a company I do business with succeed in their undertakings.

Dave the Mainer

Translation: I have no specifics because I made it up.

Dave, as far as honesty goes you could start by admitting you're not a lawyer.

[Daven]

Dave, as far as honesty goes you could start by admitting you're not a lawyer.

And when have I ever said I was? I believe I mentioned that I have been involved in several legal proceedings, but I never said I was an attorney. That would be like saying I was a liar. When my mouth moves, (or fingers type as the case may be) you hear and see the truth. An attorney, on the other hand, speaks the truth only when it will benefit his client, and line his/her pockets with green.

Dave the Mainer

[mtchamp]

Keep stock talk out of TCC or this thread will be closed. The personal attacks are coming close to closing this thread as well. I've seen it happen. Let's stay on topic, because I would like people to tell us if they know people signing up for Comcast TiVo because they were solicited by Comcast in whatever way, shape or form. This will help us know how serious Comcast is about fixing bugs and widely rolling out the TiVo service.

I TiVo everything and don't see many commercials. I watch a limited number of channels. I did see a Comcast TiVo commercial twice when it first came out and I can't remember what it was exactly. It did mention ordering TiVo on Comcast. I have not seen a Comcast TiVo commercial lately in the Fall River/New Bedford market.

I live in SE MA and I have not received any mailers or newspaper ads. I have a tech coming out Monday to fix my 8888 stuck box. I have 2 TiVo HD's that are holding me over. The Comcast TiVo does work very well with plenty of free On Demand content and holds lot's of promise once they knock off a few bugs.

I'm doing a lot of remodeling work in the house and my electrician has the Comcast DVR without TiVo and I asked him this past Monday what he thought of it, POS. I was talking to some one who works in the office at Comcast this week and I talked about TiVo with him and he had no idea what was going on with TiVo, but he had no praise for their DVR. Records repeats and can't FF properly were his main gripes. I told him he could get TiVo on his DVR, but to wait a couple of weeks for the software update.

I believe we will see a lot more advertising once Comcast and TiVo squares away some bugs that are not affecting everyone. So I know 2 people and many more who will go Comcast TiVo as soon as the next software update fixes the missing dolby 5.1 and 8888 reboot cycle problem. The menu speeds should see improvement and we might get a TiVo style program grid option.

It may be that some Comcast system infrastructure in some MA and NH towns are a better match for TiVo service. We would need people to identify on what system they are on and we would need to know what towns are in each system. Then we might know better who has the least amount of problems and were Comcast might be targetting more TiVo ads.

[SeanTivo]

Champ,
I agree with you on the Stock thing. I just don't believe what Dave has posted and I'm sure it has to do with the money he has on the line.

I know all about the Comcast DVR. I had one for over a year when I got my HDTV and Tivo was still dragging their feet on getting an HD Tivo to market. The DVR does pretty much suck but I would never choose SD TV + Tivo over HDTV + any DVR. Despite it's flaws it's a serviceable DVR and even has some features I liked better than what Tivo offers. (Anyone up for a 200 post thread on the "Disk space available" feature?)

What I started this thread for was to get info on Comcast's marketing of Tivo in NEw England. Like I've said before, I have 2 Comcast accounts and I haven't gotten squat from Comcast nor have I seen anything other than the 1 Tivo produced commercial. And I saw that 1 time.

Yet we hear Rogers announce that Comcast is now marketing Tivo to their 2 million NE customers. Say what???

Who's seen anything from Comcast??? Anyone? Anyone?

Without marketing what will that mean for sub numbers in 3 months? What will the excuse be then? Anyone interested in the Future of this company should be very concerned about the lack of Comcast Marketing.

This next software release better be good and Comcast better start doing what Rogers claims or Tivo is in serious trouble.

[Daven]

Yet we hear Rogers announce that Comcast is now marketing Tivo to their 2 million NE customers. Say what???



Sean,

Perhaps I can understand why you would tend to not believe me. But do you really think that Tom Rogers, in a Quarterly CC, would risk the possibility of future shareholder lawsuits, as well as the wrath of the SEC? I just don't think so. My experience in listening to the man tells me that if anything he would say nothing instead of puffing up an issue.

And what the heck is this "admit your not a lawyer" stuff. I'm just a Southie Boy who made good. Everything I learned about law, I learned on the street (and from some mighty good lawyers, as it turns out).

--Dave the Mainer from Southie (and damn proud of it)

[Bruce24]

As part of the earnings announcement yesterday, Tivo said that Comcast was now Marketing Tivo to their New England Customers.

I live in Boston and I've seen the Tivo produced commercial one time but no other marketing at all. And I have 2 Comcast accounts in New England. No marketing calls, no inserts in my bills, no email ads, nothing.

Has anyone in New England seen the marketing that Tivo is talking about and if so, what is it?

Thanks

I got email a couple of month ago, about the Tivo service being available and last week I got this in the U.S. mail.



http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5742/imagescanned392008at940bc1.jpg

[mtchamp]

Thanks Bruce. This is exactly what I wanted to see Comcast doing. I guess we'll be seeing more of this if the software update promised within 2 weeks will fix the crazy 8's reboot bug and enable Dolby. I think those were the main problems.

I was happy with my Comcast TiVo with free OnDemand until a power outage struck and my Comcast TiVo went into an endless reboot cycle. I believe it's something that can be fixed. Otherwise it looks like 2/3's of those who did the smash or trash poll here were happy with Comcast TiVo.

[HiDefGator]

what does the reverse side with the details say?

[Bruce24]

what does the reverse side with the details say?

A lot of fine print including "limited to new residential customers".

[SeanTivo]

A lot of fine print including "limited to new residential customers".

Thanks for scanning that Bruce. Finally, a Comcast Tivo ad sighting in the wild.

I understand the "Limited to new customers" as valid for the pricing they offer but in this case I think it also helps that "new customers" are getting a truck roll anyway so why not toss the Tivo install into the mix.

Over the weekend I did a little research and asked about 10 different people/households in the Boston area what they'd seen about Comcast Tivo.

A few were aware of it because I'd talked to them previously about it but the majority had no idea what I was talking about.

None had seen any marketing that they could recall.

It'll be interesting to see what happens after the March software update.

[SeanTivo]

Sean,

Perhaps I can understand why you would tend to not believe me. But do you really think that Tom Rogers, in a Quarterly CC, would risk the possibility of future shareholder lawsuits, as well as the wrath of the SEC? I just don't think so. My experience in listening to the man tells me that if anything he would say nothing instead of puffing up an issue.

And what the heck is this "admit your not a lawyer" stuff. I'm just a Southie Boy who made good. Everything I learned about law, I learned on the street (and from some mighty good lawyers, as it turns out).

--Dave the Mainer from Southie (and damn proud of it)

Dave we are definitely off track for this forum. I'll respond on the IV board.

[Daven]

Dave we are definitely off track for this forum. I'll respond on the IV board.
Views on Tom Rogers comments regarding the marketing of TiVo on Comcast are by no means off track for this thread. The fact of the matter is, that you are seeing that there is in fact a marketing effort, targeted as it may be, in place. I believe you are also too proud to admit that you are wrong and offer an apology for calling me a liar.

I would say that Comcast has been very careful about the breadth and depth of their marketing efforts with this. Since they decided to require a truck roll, I'm sure they wanted to target offers to specific towns, and in the mail to neighborhoods, or even blocks within neighborhoods. These things can easily be done.

When I told you that I knew individuals that saw Comcast advertising for the TiVo service, I was stating facts. You chose not to believe me, and started a personal vendetta against me. Check your facts FIRST next time.

And don't bother trying to respond on the IV board, I, like most there, have you on ignore because of the absurd attitudes you display there.

--Dave the Mainer

[SeanTivo]

Dave,

It'$ very obviou$ why you are $o cranky today but please let'$ keep thi$ forum clear of your per$onal vendetta$. I don't want to report you to the admin, but I will if I have to.

Thi$ i$ my la$t po$t to you.

[Rebate_King]

knock it off

[AdamF]

I got email a couple of month ago, about the Tivo service being available and last week I got this in the U.S. mail.



http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5742/imagescanned392008at940bc1.jpg

I live in Franklin, MA and just received this exact same ad inside of the Valpak coupon thing. It's that envelope that arrives every now and then with a million coupons in it. There was also a FIOS ad but even though they began advertising in my town over a year ago and had a sign promoting FIOS outside of the Verizon building downtown, I still can't get FIOS at my house.

[mtchamp]

I just talked to someone at work with Comcast in Fall River MA and he says he sees TiVo ads everyday right now. The TiVo guy jumps inside the Comcast DVR box.

[Daven]

I just talked to someone at work with Comcast in Fall River MA and he says he sees TiVo ads everyday right now. The TiVo guy jumps inside the Comcast DVR box.

And you know what, I believe you. I won't speak for Sean though. If you are not careful by giving him all the details (time, palce, circumstances, witnesses names) he will surely call you a liar.

Dave the Mainer

[SeanTivo]

And you know what, I believe you. I won't speak for Sean though. If you are not careful by giving him all the details (time, palce, circumstances, witnesses names) he will surely call you a liar.

Dave the Mainer

No I won't. I'd ask him if it was a Comcast ad or if it is the Tivo produced ad though. I think that's significant.

[mtchamp]

I just talked to another guy at work with Comcast in New Bedford MA and he has been seeing it for at least the last three weeks and saw it this week for sure. My interrogations have become more intense.

He said the ad is talking about getting TiVo from Comcast. It shows a Comcast HD box and the lid opens and as the TiVo guy jumps in, it says you can get the TiVo features on your HD DVR.

It sounds to me like a Comcast advertisement of TiVo as an added feature benefit for the HD Comcast box now sitting on your TV. I live outside New Bedford MA with our own public access channel and we might be a different market.

I don't watch a lot of TV and of course I TiVo it. I wish I was seeing some TiVo ads at home as I did before. I'm going to remember to ask what channels they may have been watching and TiVo the channel for 2 12 hour blocks if I can and see if I catch the ads in a 24 hour period.

[JoeBarbs]

I'm going to remember to ask what channels they may have been watching and TiVo the channel for 2 12 hour blocks if I can and see if I catch the ads in a 24 hour period.

I'd be interested in seeing how many times you see the commercial over a 24 hour period. :up:

[mtchamp]

I just set up two 23 hour 55 minute recordings of TLC and Discovery channels beginning at 9pm. We'll see if we catch the TiVo guy by tomorrow night. Good thing I have 2 TiVo HD's.

[AdamF]

I work in Cambridge and was in a restaurant yesterday for lunch and saw the ad on the TV there. The TiVo guy jumping into the cable box.

[mtchamp]

I'm still recording TLC and Discovery for 24 hours. I looked quickly before work on TLC and saw the ad at 11pm. I started the recording at 9pm. I couldn't look any more, no time. So the ad is with the baseball guy on the couch with his TiVo antenae, says stuff, TiVo guy opens lid on Comcast Box, says stuff about getting TiVo on Comcast with season passes and searches including OnDemand, invites you to call Comcast and get TiVo with phone number. I think it's the same commercial I saw before. It's probably on You Tube. I think if things were going really bad with the TiVo rollout, we would not see any ads. So far we have TV commercials and mailers with a nice bundle with HBO promotion confirmed.

[BlackBetty]

This is the commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSPHNpvZ_SE

[SeanTivo]

I saw that Tivo produced commercial on the Fox News Channel last night. It ran right after one of those Comcast "More, more more" ads so I'd have to assume it was part of Comcast's ad buy.

[SeanTivo]

I'm curious if others are still seeing Comcast Tivo Ads. Since my post about seeing the Ad on Fox News about a month ago I have not seen any more ads.

Is anyone still seeing ads and if so, how often?

Thanks