TiVO Raises Lifetime Subscription Prices

[Kevin Arnold]

Found this linked off of Titan TV.  Looks like its getting pricier to sign up for the single payment option.  Can Replay be far behind?

TiVo Raises Price for 'Lifetime' Membership  


NEW YORK (Reuters) - TiVo Inc. in March will increase the price for a long term membership to its television recording service by $50 to $299, the company said on its Web site on Friday.

The new price, which is effective on March 3, covers the "Product Lifetime" of the TiVo machine, a digital video recorder (DVR) that allows users to save programs on a set-top box with a hard drive.

Alviso, California-based TiVo derives most of its revenue from fees for its service, which can automatically record programs based upon a user's personal viewing choices, or save an entire season of a particular show.

The increase come roughly one year after TiVo raised the "lifetime" price to $249 from $199.

A TiVo representative declined to comment on the price change, but said the company will continue to also offer the service for about $13 a month.

TiVo is the leading developer of TV recording systems, competing with companies such as SONICblue Inc. , Echostar, and Thomson's RCA brand, which each offer rival machines.

However, TiVo has struggled to convince a larger mass of consumers to first spend hundreds of dollars on a television recording device, then pay a fee for TiVo's service. TiVo's has more than 500,000 subscribers and in 2004 expects that figure to double, topping 1 million.

Shares of TiVo's rose 5 percent to $5.26 in late afternoon trade on the Nasdaq.