TIVO still exists?
Well… For now…
Gather ‘round kids, time for a story. The year was 2003, and TiVo had defined the category of DVRs and instantly become indispensable. People loved that they could fast-forward through commercials, much to the chagrin of networks and advertisers.
But a new competitor entered the scene: ReplayTV, a product that did everything TiVo did with one major added benefit: it automatically detected and skipped commercials without having to press a button. It was glorious. So naturally, like all things which improve the life of a consumer, the powers-that-be took umbrage. Funded by TiVo lobbying, the FCC decided that not having to press a button on a remote was a bridge too far. ReplayTV was crushed by a heavy fine and ban, relegating them to the tech scrap heap. Thus TiVo maintained their position as market leader, despite having an inferior experience.
All this to say: fuck you TiVo, you wasted your brand clout and position by getting into bed with the same lawmakers who fomented your demise when the HD era was legislated to ban commercial-skipping mechanisms.
My mom watched Coronation Street. She wasn’t home when it was on because she had a job like so many other people.
We got this VCR that would record the show then erase the commercials because networks couldn’t resist playing ads louder so it would detects the volume increase and tag those as ad starts and finishes. When you went back to watch the show the ads would fast forward.
Ironically, it’s those ephemeral local ads you were erasing that were worth saving and not the shows that are still available.
Edit: If someone says they have a VHS copies of the X-Files, I wouldn’t take them UNLESS they had all the advertisements. I can get the X-Files streamed or on DVD or Blueway or MK4. What I can’t get is a 1:1 recording of the experience of watching the show as it was watched at the time. Now, yes, commercials do suck, but it’s a little different when they’re a peek into a lost world.
*(I’d also need to get a VCR player and a CRT, too.)
I still remember the local ads. We still had to watch ads on live tv. Just a few shows that were recorded got to be ad free.
The Captain made “famous” ads back in the 90s. https://youtu.be/-vEXqG54hCw
Yessss!!! This is what I’m talking about!
TiVo Plans to End
Free Automatic Commercial Skippingin NovemberToo many people will be too ignorant and will gladly pay for it. Prime Netflix etc are all still raking in the dough after implementing ads, most people just dgaf
Wow, what are the odds these are related???
Remember, every dollar is a vote. Ohh you don’t have millions of dollars laying around to vote with!?
Why would they be?
TiVo still exists?!
Not much longer, by the sounds of it.
at their peak, the auto skip didn’t even exist… just the manually-activated 30-sec skip that you had to enable yourself like a cheat code in a video game.
replaytv got sued out of existence due to the same basic functionality. dish’s hopper still exists but i think they made a deal with the networks (we won’t sue you if you delay the feature for a number of hours).
the networks will sue as soon as tivo makes it a specific line item on a bill for the specific feature of automatically skipping commercial breaks. and that’s on top of subscribers leaving due to the rug pull… but where tf they gonna go? alternatives kinda suck and are not as easy to set up or use.
Yeah apparently they’re feeling the effects of continued enshittification of everything.
The cause is capitalism. Every company is driven by an insatiable profit motive to endlessly grow, and extract as much value from consumers and employees as possible, like a cancer.
You could perhaps still have enshittification in a worker owned organization. It seems more likely to happen when the decisions are being made by rich ghouls and absent shareholders, rather than the people who actually made the product.
A big problem is often lack of competition.
And their response appears to be “if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em.”
I blame private equity.
We already have a grown up generation who don’t know the meaning of the “tivoisation” word.
I mean, it’s been 20 years since GPLv3 came out.
That was what I came here to say. Glad to see it’s top comment. The fediverse does not disappoint.
That was my question as well.
