TiVo fans can expect a cheaper price tag for the digital video recording service in the next few months, when a second model with lower storage is made available.
The service's exclusive local distributor, TGC Taiwan Inc (替您錄科技), is set to release a second model of its set-top box, with half the amount of storage of the current model, or 80GB, so consumers can expect lower prices, Travis Lin (林新建), the firm's general manager, told a press briefing yesterday.
Currently, TiVo is only available in a 160GB format here, which can record up to 180 hours of programs on low-resolution mode.
The box retails for NT$12,900 (US$396.40). There is no subscription fee for the first year, and a subscription fee of NT$1,500 per year starts in the second year.
TGC's launch of the second model comes in response to feedback from consumers, as some said they did not need a large amount of storage to record videos, while others hoped to acquire the set-top box at a lower price, according to Lin.
"Offering customers a second option will help us enlarge the subscription base," he said.
TiVo is a set-top box that can record TV programs digitally onto a hard disk. Viewers can then skip commercials and pause, rewind or fast-forward programs. Other services include a TV program guide, reviews of the latest TV shows or automatic recording for an entire season of a series.
Launched in the US in 1999, TiVo has more than 4.5 million subscribers, translating into a 40 percent share of the digital video recording market there, according to Lin.
The service debuted here last December and Taiwan is the first Asian country the firm has expanded into, thanks to the nation's mature broadband environment and high cable TV penetration rate.
Lin said that initial plans to expand the service into Singapore and Hong Kong this year were on hold, as the company aimed to "focus on Taiwan's market now."
But he said that TiVo would make its first appearance in certain cities in China in the second half of this year.
Lin was tight-lipped on the subscription base in Taiwan, saying only that the "response was positive."
However, a shop manager at a Tatung Co (
Tatung, along with Synnex Technology International Corp (
"There is a lot of explaining to do for general customers regarding what TiVo is all about. But the machine is popular among those who have lived in the US before and who know its special features," said the manager, who refused to be named.
The store had sold only two TiVo units in the past six months, he said.
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