I had to take a quick break from the studying and homework of Summer Session College Class (R) to spread the word that TiVo may be in some trouble. Over at PVRWire I read that there are rumblings of DirecTV making its own in house PVR solution and cutting TiVo loose. Around 70% of TiVo's subscription base comes from the deal with DirecTV, so this could be very bad for the company. Read up on it. Heres a small excerpt:

Is the marriage between DirecTV and TiVo coming to a close? J.P. Morgan seems to think so according to comments made on Friday (July 22, 2005). J.P.Morgan's expectation is that DirecTV will roll out their own PVR technologies and no longer need to rely on TiVo.

Even though I built my own, I would hate to see the company that popularized DVRs go away.

UPDATE: via PVRSpot has some scoop on DirecTV signing a deal with Pace Micro Technology to provide future statellite set top box's (and presumably DirecTV PVR's)




Note: rampy--> one thing to consider is that although DirecTV is a large number of the overall subscriber base, TiVo gets much less gross return per subscriber than they do for the standalone units. IIRC it's a buck and change from DirecTV to TiVo for each DirecTiVo subscription. Compared to the fat they must get from the suckers like me who pay 12.95 a month for standalone units. So I wouldn't sound the death bell quite yet, as both DirecTV and TiVo (I hope) have been planning for this seeming eventuality.