Within the 2000s, TiVo reached heights few corporations ever obtain. Like Google and Xerox, its identify grew to become a verb. Individuals needed to “TiVo” the brand new episode of Battlestar Galactica or recreation 4 of the Crimson Sox vs. Cardinals, not “document” it. Whereas it didn’t invent the DVR, TiVo popularized it and most of the options we might ultimately take with no consideration, like the flexibility to pause or rewind dwell TV, and watch one program whereas recording one other.
These options have been lined within the now notorious US Patent 6,233,389 — higher referred to as the Time Warp patent. TiVo spent chunk of the 2000s and early 2010s defending its mental property by way of a collection of high-profile lawsuits, most notably in opposition to EchoStar. That specific saga lasted for the higher a part of a decade, with TiVo initially submitting the go well with in January of 2004 and the ultimate $500 million settlement being awarded in April of 2011.
However TiVo spent a lot of its prime years locked in courtroom battles with main gamers within the tv and digital video house. Motorola, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Dish Community, Cisco, and Verizon all discovered themselves on the receiving finish of a patent infringement lawsuit from TiVo. TiVo got here out victorious in nearly each single one. The US Patent Workplace even agreed to reexamine the patent on two separate events and reaffirmed its claims.
If the corporate had been targeted on income sources exterior the courtroom, it might have been on the forefront of the good TV rollout.
Licensing its know-how grew to become the first manner TiVo made cash because it entered the 2010s. The issue was, by then, the writing was on the wall. Netflix launched its streaming service in January 2007. Hulu entered beta later that 12 months and launched publicly in March of 2008. That 12 months additionally marked the launch of Roku’s first system and the earliest fashions of contemporary good TVs, just like the Samsung PAVV Bordeaux TV 750.
DVRs grew to become normal problem with most cable TV packages. Certain, TiVo’s interface was slicker, and it had superior options, comparable to remotely scheduling recordings by way of TiVo Central On-line or transferring them to a pc with TiVoToGo. However spending $200 or extra on a separate DVR in 2008 (no less than if you happen to wished HD tuners), plus a further subscription value on high of your cable invoice, was an more and more laborious promote when Time Warner would provide you with a DVR that was ok.
Roku was providing simple-to-use streaming set-top containers at impulse buy costs — as little as $49.99 by 2011. Google pushed costs even decrease with the Chromecast in 2013. Good TV working programs have been changing into more and more succesful. TiVo was including assist for Netflix, Hulu, and different streaming companies, however it appeared to continually be enjoying catch-up because it entered the brand new decade.
TiVo’s {hardware} had stagnated. It was losing time on options like the flexibility to order Domino’s out of your TV. And its largest cash maker — a patent targeted on manipulating broadcast tv — was more and more changing into out of date as cord-cutting started to develop in recognition.
Based on nScreenMedia conventional pay TV subscriptions peaked within the US in 2010 at round 103 million, or roughly 89 p.c of households. In 2025, that quantity is down to simply 49.6 million, or 37.6 p.c of households. The most well-liked streaming companies at the moment are simply outpacing linear pay TV as they copy a few of its strikes by leaning into dwell content material anchored by sports activities and different spectacles that draw eyeballs to now-unskippable advertisements. On the finish of 2024, Netflix had 89.6 million subscribers and Disney Plus 56.8 million within the US and Canada. (The businesses report subscriptions by area solely, not nation.) As TiVo continued to battle corporations like Google and Time Warner in courtroom, its buyer base was drying up.
TiVo was ultimately bought by Rovi, an organization whose main enterprise is hoarding patents and both licensing them to different corporations or suing corporations in an effort to power them to license their know-how. This, sadly, was to be TiVo’s destiny going ahead. When it was bought by tech licensing agency Xperi in 2020, the press launch saying the merger didn’t tout best-in-class {hardware} or modern set-top field software program. As a substitute, it bragged about having “one of many business’s largest and most numerous mental property (IP) licensing platforms.”
After its merger with Xperi, TiVo wouldn’t launch one other set-top field. Its final mannequin, the TiVo Edge, was launched in 2019. And this month, the corporate confirmed it had quietly offered the final of its inventory on September thirtieth and can be exiting the {hardware} enterprise.
TiVo says it plans to concentrate on its fledgling good TV OS — a transfer that’s most likely 15 years too late. Maybe if the corporate had been targeted on income sources exterior the courtroom, it might have been on the forefront of the good TV rollout. Perhaps it might have developed its personal streaming-first system that was greater than a lazy (and late) reskin of Android TV. TiVo’s UI and iconic peanut distant have been beloved. Its model was a family identify. However, slightly than construct a platform to energy the following era of televisions, it appeared targeted on milking each greenback out of corporations clearly heading in direction of obsolescence.
