Alright, so you’ve already paid $69.99 for your Series2 Tivo, assuming you took the time to mail in the $150 rebate. Now you’re paying $19.99 each month for a subscription to Tivo’s service. If you’ve got the high-definition box, change that $69.99 figure to $800. What kind of extras is Tivo offering you for all that money? Well, pretty crappy ones in my opinion.

For years marketers have dreamed of the day when people could buy a movie ticket through their computer, and many people now do. Not many thought a person’s TV could, or should, do the same job. With Tivo’s extras, you can also find the nearest car dealer who sells your favorite brand of car, as long as you don’t drive one of those terrible Russian brands. When would you use this? Probably never, but I’m sure some hot-shots at Tivo thought it would be a huge hit with advertisers who would pay them hundreds of millions of dollars a year to be featured on Tivo’s extra services. Oh heck, I know what hot-shot “idea men” are like, they probably even used the b word. Yeah, billions a year from spamvertising! We’re all rich, let’s take off our suits and roll around in the money!

Tivo Inc. is a company barely able to survive. They have very little proprietary technnology, and a lot of companies with a lot more money are trying to move in on their turf, and doing it quite successfully. Tivo needs to offer many extras in their service, but what they have right now are not extras. They’re just more ways to squeeze money out of their product. People are not as stupid as Tivo thinks. They know the difference between an advertisement and something of actual value.

Tivo’s future can go in two directions: breakthrough innovation or death.

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