Sky to sell PVRs by Xmas

[timmy]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3318494a28,00.html

heh, what a joke...

[ehintz]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3318494a28,00.html

heh, what a joke...

Should be interesting to see how they go. If the UI is decent, there aren't dumb restrictions, and the cost is reasonable, then it'll be quite nice. The blurb in the article makes it sound similar to a DTivo, which in the states is a $5/mo add on to the existing DTV subscription. Very reasonable. Not that I expect Sky to be reasonable mind you. And IIRC other discussions here have indicated that the Sky PVR offering sounds a bit inferior.

[timmy]

yeah the specs are ok, eg dual tuner + large capacity HD. Tho there's no reason (financially/technically) the spec's should'nt be reasonable given the hardware has had about 5 yrs to mature/drop in cost.

I would'nt think they'd have too much trouble signing up a small flow of customers even if they did have a crippled system and $ pricing structure, thats a sad but true fact I think.

Nothing much stopping them from stagnating for another couple of years with this I reckon, if they wanted to. Just keep the price high (...and the service crap, it's what they're good at, j/k ) I doubt they'll do this however... that just can't be good for market share over the long term..

anyway, thankgod for the internet...

[Darren King]

Over here in Australia, Foxtel pay-TV service has released someting called the "IQ" which sounds very similar and is also made by Pace. Costs about $400AUD to "loan" the box (and no you don't get the money back if you unsubscribe), plus an "installation fee" and of course a fee increase in your subscription every month too. And yeah it has cripple restrictions too like Timmy mentions. To those who don't know what a TiVo is they think it's great and rave over them. To us who know better the majority just laugh even if a TiVo cannot do two recordings at once.

Don't know much more about the Foxtel IQ except when I walk past the local large shopping centre stall that has a few of them going on widescreen plasma TV's. I'm not allowed to get Foxtel as they won't service my area. Get this: We have a company called Foxtel and a company called Austar and neither of them can provide competitve services in the same areas. At present Foxtel offer a PVR device and Austar have no plans for one. This is our Government's slant on what they think is fair competition