NonprayingMantis:

friedCrumpet: Seriously, can you guys honestly say that the current situation is better than if TiVo was ISP agnostic?

Balchy: I already acknowledged and mentioned many of the choices you listed.  But what has happened with TiVo here is reducing choice.

nate: Others have said that TiVo is not talking to other ISPs.  I suspect whatever deal they have made with Telecom is exclusive.  Also as I said, sometimes people have good reasons for not wanting to switch ISPs.  So tough luck to them eh?  In the end I suspect it's tough luck for TiVo as they are missing out on a sale.

Better for whom?

 

We don’t know the details of Telecom’s agreement with TiVo so we can’t really say,  but hypothetically Telecom might refuse to provide unmetered downloading on TiVo if they didn’t have exclusivity.  Voda and Telstra might be forced to do the same if they have existing agreements with Sky that prevent them working with other TV distribution methods.  The remaining ISPs in the country amunt to less than 10% market share put together I would say.

 

What that would mean is,  if TiVo stood their ground and refused to sign an exclusive deal with Telecom, then it could mean that unmetered content is not available to anyone, or maybe only to customers of the smallest ISPs (who may not even have the free cash flow to build unmetering anyway)

 

Also, we don’t know, but maybe Telecom are subsidising the box just like they do with modems and cellphones?  Who knows, if they didn’t get the exclusive agreement then maybe the box price would be $1000+ given our small country's lack of bulk buying power?