Incomplete Gamer

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Tivo is readying to launch in Oz with a keenly-priced subscription deal. How keenly priced? How does free sound? Sure, there’s no such thing as a free HD PVR, and the price of the recorder is likely to be a little higher than it might have been, had the Tivo/Channel Seven/Unwired consortium been able to sign you up to an on-going monthly subscription to access the Electronic Program Guide.

Now, the epg is the life blood of the Tivo (and any other DVR for that matter). Without it, it’s only slightly more useful than a doorstop. Sure, you’ll have great picture quality, but you’ll be managing your recordings as effectively as your old VCR could manage, which is to say not at all. The epg was something any Tivo buyer would have had to pony up for no matter how reluctantly. Without it, the whole purchase would be a little pointless. Yet it was always going to be a hard sell. Sure Foxtel charge an on-going subscription, but you do however get additional programming above and beyond the offerings of the free to air broadcasters.

The Tivo Service (US$12.95 is the current monthly going rate for US customers) would have bought you little more intitially than the epg and a fully functional dvr (there are additional web based services rumoured to be in the pipeline). As good as Tivo is (disclosure: I’m one of the converted and long serving Series 1 users) for many Australian customers, and the Australian Tivo consortium, that may have been a barrier impossible to overcome.

The news, (still unconfirmed by Tivo Australia) is the first real sign in months that the Tivo launch is still on target for July. As one cynic on the DBA forums duly notes, the Australian Tivo website hasn’t seen much activity since the end of last year. True enough; certainly nothing to indicate that such a large and exciting release is now only weeks away.

The Incomplete Gamer glass is always half full. We’re calling this quiet spell, ‘the calm before the storm’. As for the SMH report? We already know that Tivo is an excellent bit of kit. All it needs to succeed is keen pricing and smart marketing. For now at least, it looks like the Aussie mob responsible for the launch have added another winning piece to the puzzle.