Thursday 31 March 2011

Analysis, reaction and a new poll for Virgin's Media's pre-registered offer for TiVo

The initial reaction to Virgin's TiVo offer to pre-registered customers has been met with some disappointment from various customers on-line, with the £40 installation fee in particular not being well received. Others say that for now, TiVo is a luxury product and is priced accordingly.

The email dispatched eariler reveals that acceptance of the offer will invoke a new 12 contract. While the XL TV pack requirement and £3 per month charge has been known for some time, the email also reveals that if you drop down to the M+ or L TV packs after getting TiVoed, the monthly charge increases to £8 per month. TiVo isn't available to TV M pack customers.

So, 'Dean', now the offer for pre-registered customers is out of the bag (£149 for the TiVo + £40 installation + £3 per month on XL), will you take Virgin up on it? That's the question for the new poll, which can be located at the top right of this blog's pages. Voting ends next Friday at 9pm. In the mean time, the PVR Comparison Document will be updated shortly to reflect today's news

4 comments:

Carl Waring said...

Of course, the original Tivo was £499 + another £199 Lifetime Sub or £10 per month. The original TVDrive/V+ was also around the same price that the Tivo is now when *it *was originally released.

spudgun055 said...

The £40 install is bad, They called me out of the Blue at beginning of March and I only paid £149 (no install fee) which is a good price.

But after using this bad boy for a month I would say when you look at Sky HD and other PVR's on market for £200 TIVO WIPES THE FLOOR WITH THEM

BUY IT TRUST ME (I DO NOT WORK FOR VIRGIN AND IN FACT HAVE HAD SKY FOR 17 YEARS TILL LAST MONTH)

Richard said...

i had a tivo s1 when launched and still used it till christmas. I managed to bag a vm tivo earlier in march.
TIVO is fantastic and I strongly recommend.

as carl says the s1 was more expensive.
as Matt says, it wipes the floor with other pvr's.

However, if I had just installed a V+ or sky+ HD,I would struggle to justify £200 just to make recording a little easier, searching for programmes etc easier.

It is a no brainer choice if you have no PVR and is the perfect reason (along with broadband that delivers the speed promised) to switch to VM.

if you like gadgets and have the money - go for it. you will love it.

if you are strapped for cash, then it is really a luxury item but will eventually come down in price and other cheaper options later in the year (as per ceo presentation to shareholders)

Tony Hoyle said...

Yeah it sounds like the Tivo software will over time become the default for VM, even for their non-PVRs (which can only be a good thing. Tivo is absoutely awesome).

There's nothing new in these prices - they're the same as announced previously. The only surprise is there's no free install.. and I bet that doesn't last long.

I paid £399+£10/mo for my first Tivo, I paid £299 + £10/month for my SkyHD box (twice, since the first self destructed!). £199+£3/mo is *cheap* for a new product. Especially when it's Tivo.

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