A MESSAGE FROM TIVO: Monthly Service Fees

Cue "Is this the end of Tivo in the UK" posts

 

Depends what we read into 'Stay tuned for more good things to come from TiVo.' I guess.

Given I've been on the monthly sub since I got it this is great news though.

 

Perhaps it is all part of the Ten year celebration of Tivo in the UK.

Or maybe they will offer users the option of moving over to the new Virgin Tivo product which of course will be of no use to us folks living in non Virgin cable/fibre areas.

Then the old service gets turned off just like the original BSB 5 Channel TV.

Automan.

 

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..and it's been sent to all TiVo boxes as that rarest of things, a system message:

 

I would imagine one reason might be that as they launch the new Virgin Tivo service - for which they will clearly need to run the service, they are making all the old service contracts fully paid up. There must be a very small percentage of them running - and for which Tivo had to maintain the old contract with Sky. Also with no other sources of income it was worth collecting the montly revenues. Now they will be a separate and tiny stream they would not see the financial benefit of a separate process. They may of course try to migrate payments to whatever new infrastructure they have - but I doubt they would bother. 10 years at 10 pounds per month is a fairly good take.
This may allow them to move all contract management to a new infrastructure to prepare for the new Virgin management.
Of course it could be in preparation for the termination of our service....but I really really hope not...and can't see why they would.

 

I think this is the only message (other than lineup changes) I have ever received! At least someone is there...

 

It obviously does say "for a limited time..." so presumably this is just TiVo giving us a special offer of a few months for free, then back to a tenner a month after that.

Funny how the date says Sun 17/10 and we all get it 4 days later!

Roll on the "...more good things to come from TiVo"

 

Imagine if monthly fees had permanently been waived - there would have been a whole bunch of spares brought out of storage I'm sure!

(Pessimism - Lets hope there aren't any mistakes migrating existing subscriptions into a new payment system. I'm not sure I have my original letter showing I paid £200 way back when).

 

I bought my brother one as a present that he used a lot but he stuck it in storage when he went to work abroad a few years ago. He's back now and I've emailed him to see if it works if he sets it up again.....

 

Im pretty sure it would only be for currently monthly subbed units...... but I WILL be trying my two spare unsubbed Tivos to see what happens

 

Are we about to be offered a free upgrade to Tivo Premiere?

 

No. Sorry to be so dismissive, but I can't see how that would work.

 

I'll be interested to know what happens. I moved my original TiVo to the bedroom when I got one with a bigger hard drive (and the fact it was never quite right after a road traffic accident in 2007 when it was on my back seat along with a load of other stuff, I had to brake thanks to a dick in front of me, and it zoomed forward off the other stuff and into the back of my seat - and I was actually driving at a reasonable speed - I just hadn't banked on an emergency brake for a 15-min journey), but the original one has the same serial number as I just ported it across so I've never connected the old one to the phone line since.

 

Please let us know what happens.

Got this message on my lifetime sub machine today, but I've also got a fully working unsubbed one in storage, which I was keeping for spares.

 

Hmm, only just seen this one my 3 Live Lifetime Tivos;

Would be great if it applied to unsubbed ones too, but I don't think it will - as chance would have I was setting up a spare readly for a trip away at the weekend where we must have the F1.

I dropped a new disk in and I wasn't sure if it was subbed or not, so I let it make the phone call. It came back as account closed with no guide data - this was around lunchtime...

 

I can never remember a system message appearing before either - I do remember very occasional non-system lineup messages in the dim and distant past, but what they were escapes me.

Is it odd that the message was dated Sunday, but only received today?

I've just changed my phone line to Be-Unlimited and got involved in their incompetence around provision of fully working lines, so it's good to know that the daily call is at least working - if calls to paid numbers aren't!

 

I doubt unsubbed units will get the offer as their servers I guess would only send the message to accounts in good status.

Later I suspect we will get a £50.00 off offer on a Virgin Tivo box follwed by the end of the old Tivo service perhaps at the end of March 2011.

Always expect the worse and things can only get better

Automan.

 

As much as I'd like one, I love being able to rip shows from my TiVo to the PC.

 

Whats not so clear as a lifetime sub is will i now get a bill after this free period ends?

Will be interesting to see if 'lifetime' status is honoured after whatever is happening in the background occurs in the future, after the 'limited time' expires...