Back in the days when Newscorp took over Directv, I actually worked for News in a dth teleport for SkyBrazil, SkyLA and SkyMexico (Televisa) here in florida. Some of the development for the nds box was being done in their Miami Lakes facility in conjunction with other nds products in development at the time. I kept hearing "Too unstable" and "Too expensive" when I asked about it. Heck, I even posted on this board (as much as I could) that things just weren't all that rosy with the new nds box. No one I knew felt that directv would sign off on the durn thing. Then after the race for the "low cost" unit and tivo delivered the r10 platform that came in on time and
supposedly under cost, everybody thought it was all wrapped up, especially since the nds box was way late and (rumored) way over cost..
Boy was I wrong.
Dead wrong.
Anouncments were made, stories started coming out:
DirectTV Dumps TiVo
DirecTV: TiVo-less DirecTV In October
Carey Confirms DirecTV Will Cease Marketing TiVo
NDS Threaten TiVo with DirecTV PVR
DirecTV To Develop TiVo Rival!
DirecTV Dumping TiVo
DirecTV makes moves to drop TiVo
DirecTV sells its TiVo stake
News Corp's NDS is the anti-TiVo
TiVo dented by DirecTV move
DirecTV touts potential TiVo rival
Then, a year or so later, we get what we thought was a little ray of hope ...
"On April 12, 2006 they entered an agreement to allow existing DirecTV customers using the TiVo digital video recorder to continue to receive maintenance and support from DirecTV. As part of the agreement, TiVo and DirecTV also said they wouldn't sue each other over patent rights."
But, alas, the experts shot down any hope we may have had:
Murray Arenson, an analyst at Ferris Baker Watts, cautioned that the DirecTV contract extension doesn't indicate that the satellite TV provider has changed its mind about the value of TiVo's product. Instead, it's an admission by DirecTV that it needs more time to transition its customers beyond the 2007 cutoff date, he said.
Ultimately, TiVo will likely end up in a worse position from this deal, since it now seems unlikely that DirecTV will license intellectual property from TiVo, he said.
http://news.com.com/TiVo+and+DirecTV+extend+contract/2100-1038_3-6060475.html
And now we are told something
completely different!
Supposedly, the release of this "DVR enhancement" is timed just
One Year Before The End of what was touted as an agreement simply just to cover directv's butt on possible patent litigation!
And this isn't just some service/maintance release,
they're supposedly adding enhancements and new features!!!
It's like the live-in that breaks up with you, tells you to get out and six months later, just as you're moving the last almost forgotten box out of the attic, the hurt and pain finally over and you're finally moving on, she looks at you and coyly suggests that you stay over and share a bottle of wine or something, all the while fluttering her eyes the way she use to!!!!!
Bless her heart, I gotta take my box and go. I can't go through that again!
.... at least not today.
maybe tomorrow.
maybe.
