MediaWorks rebels; threatens TiVo launch
A source at MediaWorks, owner of TV3 and C4, says TVNZ needs its electronic programming guides for TiVo to work. But right now, it’s in no mood to provide them, putting the state broadcaster’s $9.8 million investment in peril.
Yesterday, TVNZ announced it had spent $A8 million to buy a one-third share in Hybrid TV, the vehicle set up by The Seven Media Group to manage its exclusive Australasian rights to TiVo.
TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis said his company would launch a TiVo service by Christmas.
While Mr Ellis had not talked to MediaWorks chief executive Brent Impey before the launch, he was sure the broadcaster would come on board.
At the launch, Mr Ellis said TiVo set-top boxes in New Zealand would take a feed from Freeview’s HD service, and as a shareholder in the Freeview consortium MediaWorks was obliged to play ball.
Beyond that legal argument, Mr Ellis said it was in MediaWorks’ interest as a free-to-air broadcaster to see its programming in as many places as possible.
However, a well-placed insider at MediaWorks says while TiVo may need TV3 and C4’s electronic programming guides (EPGs) to work, Mr Ellis was very wrong to assume it was a done deal.
Under MediaWorks’ interpretation of the two companies’ agreement, the TV3 and C4 EPGs are only available for Freeview (and Sky TV). “We retain the IP to the EPGs and TVNZ needs our permission to include them in any ‘clip ons’."
Neither does MediaWorks necessarily see a need to be “on all platforms and all places. TVNZ is making a tremendous assumption if it assumes the pattern established with Freeview will apply to TiVo."
It is understood by NBR that MediaWorks has three issues that it thinks make TiVo an unattractive proposition in New Zealand.
One is the expense (TiVo boxes sell for $A699 in Australia).
Another is what it says is the complexity of setting up an associated broadband account.
The third is reliability. Unlike with Sky TV, the EPG will be delivered by broadband. On-demand movies and TV - some paid, some free - will also be delivered by broadband. “And we all know the reliability issues with broadband in this country”, says the MediaWorks insider.
All came right in Australia
At yesterday’s launch, Hybrid TV Ms Minocola noted that commentators in Australia were dubious that Hybrid TV could get all free-to-air broadcasters to share their EPGs, given that Seven Media Group owns the Seven network, but TiVo launched with arch rivals Nine, Channel 10 and the ABC all on board.
But wait, there's more
MediaWorks raises issues beyond the EPG, and the cost and user-friendliness (or not) of TiVo in New Zealand.
The company claims that no broadcaster in the world has made money from a download service yet (on-demand TiVo content will all be delivered by broadband), and that TiVo itself has lost money in 11 out of 12 years from its service for recording broadcast TV.
MediaWorks questions why TVNZ is embarking on what it calls a “speculative initiative” at a time when it has told the government it is on a drive to save $25 million in costs.
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Comments and questions8
MySkyHD allows me to do everything TiVo does, why would I need more when content is the name of the real game?
Let me tell the TV companies this...
You are stupid beyond belief to play games with your show listings. They should be spawned like grass seed anywhere and everywhere. If I don't see a show of interest on the various web links or publications I read I probably wont watch the show.
RESULT: You get poor ratings statistics and reduced ability to sell advertising which I understand is how you make your money?
Hi Observer - MySky obvious matches features like season pass, for recording every episode of a series, plus all the usual stuff like live pause, chase play and recording two channels at once.
But does it have an equivalent to TiVo's Wishlist (automatically recording programmes that match your star or director preferences); its ability to be remotely programmed via the web; its home networking add-on for copying content to your PC, Mac or iPhone, or its 1TB (1024GB) external hard drive? I think not.
Actually Chris the MySky does allow remote programming (called Remote Record in Australia using the same box) and allows connection of an external hard drive using the eSATA connection however Sky havent elected to activiate this functionality as yet. Something about the economics of a critical mass. The cynic in me says that we'll probably see these features before Tivo launches in the NZ market (at least RemoteRecord).
And given its a BSkyB derivative then its only a matter of time before we see something like Sky Anytime on TV IMHO.
So the Tivo offers Wishlist and home networking. Tivo is an elegant solution but given the expectations on sales over the next 5 years even its NZ shareholder doesnt think it will take the country by storm. But competition is a healthy thing.
A lot of set-top boxes support IP and remote programming, but you need a really, really user-friendly website to facilitate it.
Similarly, you can plug in or upgrade any PVR's hard drive if you've got the geek-smarts. The difference with TiVo's 1TB external hard drive is that it's plug and play.
I think TVNZ should have reached a modus operandi ith MediaWorks before entering into its TiVo dea.
But I also think MediaWorks criticism of TiVo as not user-friendly is a red herring. By my reading, it's got a deserved rep for user-friendliness.
Totally agree that more competition can only be a good thing, driving both sides to add new features and lower prices.
As a user of TiVo in NZ for many years now, and having played with MySky and other PVRs to compare it more recently, it's my view that TiVo is still the gold standard for PVRs but that MySky is a close second. The rest seem to be total rubbish including a very highly rated Topfield which could access an EPG but didn't have the smarts to allow you to record a series by name.
I agree with the above article that purchase cost will be the major issue, but from the sound of it this will be similar to the MySky box. The big difference there is that weekly usage of TiVo will be free, whereas Sky continues to cost $20 or more per week, admittedly for more channels, but how many channels do you need once you can record anything at any time and watch it at your leisure? You very quickly end up with masses of movies that you think you will get around to watching one day!
And the issues raised above re setup and broadband reliability are just FUD. I live out in the woop-woops and have never had an issue with the broadband connection. Both these units collect info for up to 7 days ahead, so a temporary outage which affects one night's collection is going to make little difference to actual usage.
This smacks of political/business gameplaying rather than the technology.
My feeling is that MediaWorks is rather pissed about the TVNZ deal and are showing it...
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