Group 5

Sec A
Anirudh Krishnan 13P006
Arjun Murthy 13P012
Deepak Sasikumar 13P019
Robin Bansal 13P035
Tejas Shah 13P046
Vikas Guleria 13P056
Main idea You could really control what you watched and when you watched it
Easy to use interface between the long channel lists and what people
wanted to watch at TV at specific times, an Entertainment service
Consists of a set-top box interface between the broadcast feed and
the TV
A total of 42000 subscribers exhibiting only a 0.04% penetration in U.S.
despite availability in most of the major consumer electronics stores
Features :
Pause, rewind and fast forward options
Live TV and Recording services
Pricing structure :
Hardware - The black box : $499 for 14 hours recording capacity model
$999 for 30 hours recording capacity model
Service : $9.95/ month, $99/year and $199 for lifetime
Biggest challenge for TiVo Changing human behavior on a mass scale , one of the most ritualistic
elements of contemporary American life

Before TiVo :

TV viewing mostly considered to be a passive activity with minimal features to consumers
102 million TV-watching households in US with average American household
owning 2.4 television sets
Average TV running time/household 7.4 hours/day
Purchase of larger TV sets preferred complemented with home audio systems
Consumer electronics purchase influencers Friends/relatives, publications & Advertising
Control was with the network operators who scheduled the popular shows during prime
time as per their preferences
Advertisers took advantage of the audience, spent huge amounts in advertising
Biggest challenge for TiVo Changing human behavior on a mass scale , one of the most
ritualistic elements of contemporary American life

After TiVo :

Shift of control away from networks to consumers
Consumers empowered with variety of specific features :
Live TV
Now playing all previously recorded programs
Season pass automatically track and record users favorite shows
Thumbs up & Thumbs down like/dislike what subscribers were watching
Pause Live TV feature was considered as the significant WOW factor
Viewers could watch programs that were unavailable to them earlier
70% of owners watched recorded TV, thus skipped advertisements as per their
preferences using the fast forward feature
TiVo Microsoft Ultimate TV Replay Network
Price
$499 up to 14 hrs.
$999 - up to 30 hrs.
Not yet announced $ 200 more than TiVo
Service Fees
Additional charge of $9.95 / month
and 99/year and $199 for lifetime
Subscription based, priced around
$10 a month
None
Features
Electronic program guide (EPG)
Scheduled recording with one
push of a button
TiVo- produced video magazine
Set of network showcases
Season
Thumbs up and Thumbs low
button
Surfing & sending email
Satellite TV with DirecTV
Interactive TV & personal video
recording
Watching/recording 2 shows
simultaneously, recording pay
per view movies, 30 sec skip and
fast forwarding up to 300 times
the normal speed
Set of TV commercials
focused on the pause
feature
Pause live TV, search tools
and the ability to record
programs through an
electronic program guides
Collaborators

Sony and Philips
Thomson and Sony
DirecTV
Replay network was in
manufacturing its own
hardware
Retail execution TiVo required extensive explanations and in-store demonstrations to the customers
Manufacturer reps could not provide enough support
50% salesperson turnover rate rendered training efforts ineffective
Fear amongst the Networks of TiVos ability to shift programming & amongst the advertisers of
commercials being skipped by the customers
Degree of awareness for both brand and category negligible
Improper targeting and positioning leading to ineffective product & promotion strategy
Expensive pricing due to unavailability of any reference point for such a new service
Rising competition from Replay TV and Microsoft Ultimate TV coming up with distinguishing features
Product
A less sophisticated and more user friendly product
is desirable, hence the product should be made so
keeping in mind that it is an easy transition for a
person using a conventional VHS recorder
The privacy of customers is important and hence
must be taken care of, the usage data should not
be leaked out to anyone else
It should have specifications and features offered
by their competitors
Price

In order to gain a significant market share, it
should start from a low cost initially. For the
people to switch over from VHS recorders to
TiVo, competitive price is the key

By collaborating with cable/DTH service provider,
the monthly charges for the product service
should be lowered
Place
All the major electronics stores where TVS/VHS
recorders are sold, TiVo should be sold
It should also be available with cable/DTH service
providers so people can purchase both at the same
time
Promotion
Clear communication of the benefits of TiVo
through mass media is vital
The salespersons should be well trained in order
to give out the same message about TiVo to
customers
More in-depth Point-of-Sale demos in retail stores
Focus on delivering simple and basic demos to the customers explaining all the relevant features of TiVo in detail features such as
pause live TV, thumbs up thumbs down
Employ dedicated salespersons at the retail stores so as to cater to the high turnover rate of salesperson which renders the training
efforts ineffective
Create more brand awareness
Illustrate that the control now lies in the hands of the customers rather than the networks
pursue alternative channels of educating the target market utilizing a variety of media channels such as TV ads, online ads, print
ads and magazine articles
Product Price point
Lower down the price of TiVo since it is a new product category which is based on changing the entire human behavior with respect
to this category
Price of $999 is more expensive than the TVs and thus should be brought down to a range of $300-$400 which would help attract
the mass market rather than just early adopters