Seven Renegotiate TiVo Deal, Plan To Launch Before Olympics

So TiVo’s coming. We all know that. Some of us even tried to beta test the thing. And despite reports that Seven were giving up on it before it even launched, we now know that we will definitely see it on our shelves before the Beijing Olympics kick off in August.

How do we know? A story today in the Financial Review. And while the news that “we will definitely get it some time before August” is a little bit disappointing, the AR story did have some nuggets that are worth passing on, like the fact that Channel 7 wanted to charge between $10 and $12 a month subscription on top of a $500 up front.

Fortunately, that ain’t going to happen, as discussions with retailers like Harvey Norman made them realise that people aren’t that stupid. Hence the slashing of the subscription fee and the renegotiating with TiVo in the US, who were going to get a cut of every subscription.

The box is probably still going to sell for around $500 though, which isn’t half bad. Seven have also decided not to charge customers for software upgrades in the first three years.

In any case, when the box does launch, it’s going to be an interesting battle for our HD-loving eyeballs this winter with Foxtel’s iQ2 box.

[AFR]