Friday Flashback: TiVo
In 2008 a revolutionary DVR launched in Australia. A year later it relaunched with pizza orders.
- Published by David Knox
- on
Back in 2008, TiVo launched in Australia with considerable fanfare, through Seven and TVNZ.
The revolutionary DVR came with a steep $699 pricetag and no subscription, as be the first serious competitor to Foxtel’s iQ2 -but without the ad-skipping function which was available in the US.
It allowed users to record two shows at once while at the same time watching a previously recorded show stored on the built-in hard disk, and more.
At the time Seven CEO David Leckie described it as “The world’s best DVR.”
Seven network’s sales director at the time, James Warburton said, “It’s a magnificent product and we’re excited about bringing it to market.”
TiVo was always coy about unit sales but Seven confirmed 20,000 by late 2008.
It relaunced a year later with Blockbuster on demand, a novel service called Caspa on Demand, a daily horoscope, a photo-sharing service, a series of games, Nova and Vega radio and thanks to done a deal with Domino’s people could even order pizzas through their set-top box. Magic stuff.
By 2014 Seven had exited its interests in Hybrid TV Australia in 2014, leaving Australians to seek support via email from the US TiVo.
Nine years after its launch TiVo quit Australia and New Zealand, making auto-recording ineffective for owners.
TiVo told its users, “Please think of the environment and dispose of this device at your local e-cycling facility.”
6 Responses
Back in those days, the Topfield, and Beyonwiz (with ice tv) was much more advanced.
I remember looking at a TiVo back then however ended up opting for a Panasonic DVD/BluRay player with a Harddrive and recording of 2 Channels while you watched one or a recording. Basically went for it as at the time TiVo didn’t have a skip button you could use for adverts and the Panasonic did, plus I liked the manual record on it, so you could start a tad early and go longer plus set for weekly and daily like TiVo.
Updated it though (around 2015) so as I could have the HD Channels and still use it now, as at least you can skip adverts where as the Network streaming ones you can’t, it’s great for World Movies (can even edit adverts out before you watch).
There is still a small but active group making the Tivo work in Australia! I myself have a working model recording FTA TV.
It’s such a great device. It was a sad day when official support was removed 🙁
TiVo was one of our best household purchases. At the time I was still taping shows on vhs and I would have piles of blank unlabelled cassettes stacked up with whatever I couldn’t watch live. What a truly prehistoric time!
And heaven forbid anyone taped over anything you were keeping!
I’ve quickly learnt not to delete anything that’s been sitting unwatched on our IQ4 for ages as my wife insists she’s getting to it, despite the fact she can stream it. I’ve realised it’s more about creating a watchlist for her than needing to record it.
Or the VCR chewed your favourite tape