Tivo Marketing Case Analysis (Hbs)

Television holds an important part in most of our lives. From a young age, we spend countless hours sitting in front of a television set. Every year there are new shows created, and our favorite shows are renewed for another season. There are numerous programs to choose from. Television broadcasts are free, and there are also paid options for more diverse programming. We are fortunate enough to be able to spend on average a third of our leisure time watching television all from the comfort of our homes. Given the incredible reach that television has on our lives, we can say that television has a significant impact on our lives.

TiVo is adding subscribers at healthy pace, but faces some serious issues that need to be resolved if the company is to move forward or remain viable. I believe there are three crucial areas that we should address: revenue enhancement, marketing, and research.

The landscape of television has undergone major shifts over the last five years. In 2013, cable companies like Time Warner and Comcast, pulled over 100 million subscribers (Udland) total subscribers. By 2015, that number dipped below 100 million subscribers decreasing by one percent (Udland). In 2013, streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, totaled over 40 million subscribers (Udland). By 2015, they saw a 30 percent increase in subscribers (Udland). While cable still holds dominance in the market, the latest trends have shown that streaming services will overtake them in the near future. Streaming services’ surge in popularity is a result of having a product that provides a superior alternative to cable that accommodates the customer.

In segmenting DTV’s primary markets, Latin America and the USA, variables such as demographics, and psychographics should be implemented. For demographic studies, the company wished to target males 35+, married couples living in single family homes, and college or graduate school educated males with incomes of $70K+. To utilize the psychographic variable the company can divide viewers into segments that are advanced (those that seek the newest technology and want TV on the go), sports fans (who watch events at home), and basic (viewers that can utilize basic cable for whom TV is not a priority).

In a world of Hulu, HD TV, and online streaming, the television industry has had no choice but to embrace shifting consumer trends within the industry. Now that Internet streaming has allowed consumers to watch whatever they want, whenever they want, it is becoming harder for cable providers to keep up with consumer demand. Television broadcasters must take advantage of the bandwidth that they have available to them if they are to compete in the viewing market. With streaming sites such as Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix gaining competitive advantage in the market, television broadcasters can no longer sit back and continue to run as they always have. Accordingly, these television stations have begun making much-needed modifications.

Although what Ashley Hovey spoke about, the industry of technology and media, is not necessarily in line with my professional interests, it is definitely aligned with my recreational interests. Like many millennials, I am an avid watcher of on-demand streaming services like Netflix/Hulu, and an abandon-er of television. With the growing popularity of non-traditional media sources, there has been a mantra amongst millennial news sources that the medium of TV is dying Thus, it was incredibly interesting to hear Ashley’s perspective, as a person who works in TV, on the state of the industry. For one, it was surprising to hear how important advertising revenues are to big companies like Comcast. Although I knew that advertising revenues are high, I did not know that they are Comcast’s #2 source of revenue and in turn, a lot of its initiatives are aimed towards optimizing ad gains.

TiVo is one of the many digital video recorder systems that is used to record an individual’s favorite television episodes and or series. Using this type of recording system eliminates the interruptions that one would have while watching the program live e.g. commercials. Furthermore, with this option, customers have the ability to utilize many different recording features such as pausing, fast-forwarding, and playback. By TiVo implementing these features, it is solely creating a unique and customized television experience for their customers. The company has many factors that facilitate its adoption. These factors include customer accessibility, which views the idea that individuals can access their desired content at their own convenience rather than having to watch when it airs. Based on the target audience being individuals that own televisions, which are primarily adults 20+ who are in the work force, the idea of having this service is very accommodating for someone with a strenuous schedule. Controversially, there are factors such as age that also limit the adoption of this system. As this system is more technically

A component of Crave TV’s marketing mix that they can improve on is their promotion. Though they are with Bell Media one of the biggest companies in Canada I’ve personally never seen any commercials or advertisements physically or on the internet. If daily internet users haven’t seen a single advertisement for Crave TV then something is wrong. The current generation revolves around technology and the internet; therefore Crave TV should acknowledge that and built towards developing an online presence. As of now Crave TV only has 33,200 twitter followers and 3,000 Instagram follows whereas their main competitor Netflix has 3.74 million twitter follows and over 4 million Instagram followers. As we discussed in class we are in the social media

1. Given the current situation and the threats facing TiVo, the chief executives must rapidly decide upon the most favorable course of action. The decision is rather difficult to make for the simple reason that each of the three alternatives stand alone, tie up with Comcast or third, content distribution reveals both benefits as well as limitations. However, given the existent constraints, the second solution seems the most adequate one for the following advantages it creates:

NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company, will launch the streaming-video landscape with the a large-scale systematic plan of a comedy-focused subscription-video service dubbed as SeeSo.

Indeed, in 2014, the average American viewed 141 hours of live television per month. Though this rate is a decrease from years past, 40% of households subscribe to video services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, marking a considerable increase from 2013 (Nielsen, 2014). Furthermore, with the advent of video websites like YouTube, millions of viewers are able to find content that may be more specific to their unique needs and experiences. While consuming TV, viewers are exposed on a weekly basis to their favorite characters. Moreover, using mediums like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, viewers are able to “binge” on hours of television all at

Marketing products and services to customers forces marketers to look in depth to what the customers are thinking. They need to be able to catch the customers’ attention and make them want to buy or use a specific product or service. There are hundreds of ways marketers can achieve this, but since the world has turned digital, marketing in turn has turned its focus toward outlets that allow them to utilize this. One of the most popular methods of this is commercials. They are considered such an effective marketing tool because the company is able to get their message directly to their audience. One thirty second commercial can be seen instantly by millions, especially during the Super Bowl where the commercials attract their own set of viewers

Without it, marketers cannot ensure the products they are developing will be successful. Although predicting the future of a company is difficult, the ability to break segments into small groups is beneficial because it improves efficiency. First in the mind of consumers has its benefits but they are short-lived. Leaders do have the privilege of owning a word or phrase but this can also be detrimental if the leader is trying to extend its line. Over time consumers become smarter and will move past the exciting new product to one that benefits them the most. In 1999 TiVo was the exciting new leader for automatic television recording and on-demand viewing. Its success did not last long as cable companies simply copied its technology. A single phrase was burnt into the minds of consumers; “Tivoing” is commonly used by DVR (digital video recording) users even though they do not own a TiVo box (Saint, 2009). Today TiVo is working on releasing an innovation to help make itself relevant once again in its industry. TiVo’s Next Generation Platform will use cloud service and promises “seamless integration of content across linear, over-the-top (OTT), on-demand and DVR platforms for multiscreen capabilities.” (Dent, 2018). TiVo created a technology that was easily mocked by its competitors, now it must listen to the wants and needs of customers. It is unclear at this

Streaming is a major part of today’s culture. Many individuals and families are cutting the cords and getting rid of traditional television for streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon (“Cord Cutting Accelerates,” 2016). More and more each year people are making the switch to use these services because they are more convenient offering the ability to choose not only a program, but which episode or film in a series in full HD. Some even offer this commercial free, but even those which don’t still offer their services with minimal advertising when compared to traditional cable television. All of this is given at extremely low prices when compared with the monthly payments for places like Comcast, AT&T, and DirectTV. People are always

In the fall of 2000, Microsoft introduced UltimateTV. Similar to TiVo, Microsoft’s UltimateTV was a DVR add-on to its WebTV service which already offered email and web browsing, things which TiVo did not. UltimateTV also had other features such as recording two shows at once and 30-second skip. Microsoft’s UltimateTV did have some weaknesses, however. This included a lack of time in the DVR market and a relatively small group of current subscribers to their WebTV service. Thus, Microsoft needs to convince consumers not only that UltimateTV is superior to TiVo but that WebTV is a useful tool.