Tivo STOP the AD's!!!

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I meant keep posting in the form of keep complaining. Anyone can legitimately not like the ads on TiVo just like saying they hate all the flyers in the Sunday paper they never get anymore. Still a complaint and for that person valid from their perspective. Fine. I just take a person who stopped subscribing to the Sunday paper or a TiVo more seriously on the complaint than someone who still subscribes. Scour the forum, we might find 1 or 2 posters who left TiVo over the ads. Given that, why would TiVo stop selling ads?

Corollary - If TiVo stopped the ads would they gain enough extra subs to and up with more revenue than with ads?

 

1 Year: $22.95
2 Years: $18.95
3 years: $14.95

There now, that wasn't hard.

Seriously, if people aren't canceling over this, and it's keeping subscription costs at something reasonable that the market will support, where's the problem?

 

It's the "something reasonable that the market will support" that I don't get. Tivo's already [thread=364945] hemorrhaging [/thread] customers. It's hard to imagine that their rates could get any higher without precipitating the greatest mass exodus the company has ever seen.

 

I've wasted more time reading this thread than all the time added together I've spent reading TiVo ads.

 

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well it is the first time they net lost subscribers and they have had the rates and contracts for a while now. Seems to me there is a tighter correlation to a lack of midrange priced HD TiVo than to ads or rates.

 

That would be a nice option, but with many already complaining that the Tivo service is too expensive, do you really think those folks are going to pay MORE for seeing no gold star ads?

 

Yea but what about the rest of my above comments where they could use the wonderful Tivo technology to try to figure out ads I might actually be interested in either from a entertainment point of view or by figuring out the shows I watch.

Those ad dollars would pay a lot more than spam ad dollars.

 

Now wait a second, didn't the rate increase take place in late 2006?

Look at the number of new net subscribers.

Code:

Subscriptions in thousands:
     Three Months Ended  
			7/31/07  4/30/07  1/31/07  10/31/06  7/31/06  4/30/06  1/31/06  10/31/05
TiVo-Owned Subscription 
Gross Additions:  	 41	   57      163      101       74        91      221       92

Net Additions/(Losses): 
       
TiVo-Owned   		(19)       1      101       53       30        51      183       55 
DIRECTV   	 	(126)   (103)     (91)     (37)     (29)        2      173      379
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                       
Total Net               (145)   (102) 	  10 	    16        1        53      356      434
Additions    

My first assumption here is that Tivo's latest rate hike was Sunday, November 5th, 2006. This is based on the Stickey FAQ in this forum.

The first full quarter after the Q4 2006 price increase their net adds shrank to only 1,000 new subscribers, down SIGNIFICANTLY already from previous quarters. And the following quarter, they lose another 20,000 subscribers.

I know they're saying it's because of lackluster HD growth, but I find it hard to believe that it's all mere coincidence that their number of net new subscribers spirals to near zero the first full quarter following the Q4 '06 rate hike.

 

Not to mention another variable for the "The price structure is too confusing" crowd.

Matt, thanks for putting that chart together. While correlation != causation, that's a pretty healthy dip there. We'll have to see what this quarter looks like with the advent of the THD to see if those numbers come back any.

 

In other words, the service provided is worth the price, both in terms of money and advertising eyes.

 

And therefore such complaints are generally easily ignored/dismissed. By contrast, many companies place a very high priority on grievances expressed to them during exit interviews.

 

And being "bugged" isn't the issue -- or maybe it is, but it is actually the intention. Some advertising is even called "bugs" perhaps for that reason. Advertising is acknowledge to be something that people would prefer to avoid, but yet is often effective in proportion to how adroitly it "bugs" people. (Remember the "HEAD ON" commercials?)

 

"Valid" is just about the only thing it is not. "Valid" would imply that there is a concrete foundation on which a person could base an assertion that the advertising shouldn't be there. There are terms and conditions that are put forward when you subscribe, and they don't promise that there won't be advertising.

No, what's wrong is our "complaining culture". If you want something, then go and get it, and be willing to pay the price. If no one offers it, or no one offers it in an acceptable manner, then make it yourself or do without. That's self-reliance and taking personal responsibility for your own desires. That's an ethos on which the United States was built. We've lost that pioneering spirit, wallowing in a quagmire of entitlement.

That's really the biggest problem our consumer sector faces -- we've abrogated our power over our suppliers by absolutely refusing to do without things we find unsatisfactory. We choose suppliers based on cost, not based on how well they serve us, and we continue to pay them even if we find their offerings inadequate.

 

I agree but that are two sides to every equation. In the case of pricing, the ideal would be to price based on value. However, there is a floor below which you cannot price your product, or you'll be losing more and more money with each additional sale... you cannot sell everything for less than cost. I think that's where TiVo is. I'm guessing that it simply doesn't have the ability to produce and provide profitably at a lower cost than it is already charging, and that as they lose subscribers they will hit that floor as it rises, forcing them to again increase rates. Bad situation to be in.

 

We've found common ground here Zeo.

 

For me it is - right now. The service that makes it worth it is MRV (my boxes have TiVo Basic which otherwise provides all the functionality I need. The ONLY reason I keep paying my subscription is MRV) But then I pay the old monthly MSD rates and have NO commitment.

 

Absolutely!

Would I buy "HEAD-ON"? -- When pigs fly.

 

But of course we know you're special, Roy!

Seriously, ads that "bug" viewers actually work. It isn't the only way to have an effective ad, but it is one of the more reliable for-the-money ways.

 

Yes, true, that was the case until a few days ago..

From the Tivo Central menu you could access, "Showcases & TV Guide" thus being able to view these ads at will...

On my Tivo these ads now just pop up at will during a search within the Tivo menus, at the bottom of the screen...

Granted Tivo is entitled to this form of advertising, yet the end user should have the ability to disable such ads at will...

I opted NOT to "enter to Win a Tivo" just for this logic

 

I don't get why the star ads 'bug' people. Are they the type of people who open the refrigerator and stare with the door open trying to figure out what they want? The same way they press the Tivo button and stare at the screen trying to decide what they want to do with the Tivo? When I access the Tivo main menu, I have a reason for doing so...either to watch a recording or to check my TDL/Search for shows. I honestly can't tell you what ads have been on my Tivo at any point since maybe around Christmas time. Like other posters have said, press Tivo twice (or Tivo and Select) to get to the NPL in a split second or Tivo, down three times, and Select to get to the Search/TDL screen. In no way do the star ads interfere with your ability to watch or record a show like the ads on FX & TNT that take up a third of the screen and include sound WHILE you're watching a show. If you despise the ads so much, call Tivo and let them know that you'd be willing to pay a monthly premium to keep the star ads off of your Tivo, just like you would for HBO and Showtime. Maybe if they get enough of these types of calls, they'll add it as one of their subscription choices.