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TiVo announces Australia / NZ exit

It was once "The world’s best DVR," but TiVo will quit its EPG in October, effectively abandoning users.

Digital recording device TiVo is quitting Australia and New Zealand, nine years after its launch.

Hybrid TV Australia, under license from TiVo (US), will decommission its EPG on October 31 2017.

That will make auto-recording ineffective for owners of TiVo models, left with manual-only recording.

TiVo advises the following features will stop working:

Season Pass recording functionality;
WishList recording functionality;
TiVo Suggestions recording functionality;
TiVo Genie remote scheduling functionality.

TiVo is offering Australian customers who connected to the service in the past six months a $100 discount on the Fetch Mighty PVR at $299 through Harvey Norman’s website.

TiVo launched in Australia in 2008, with considerable fanfare, through Seven and TVNZ.  It came with a $699 pricetag and no subscription, but without the ad-skipping function which was available in the US.

At the time Seven CEO David Leckie described it as “The world’s best DVR.”

A key home networking feature that allowed users to transfer content between their PC and TiVo, was also offered as a $199 upgrade later, despite it being part of the base model in the US.

Hybrid TV boss Robbee Mincola Seven departed the company in 2011 while Seven exited its interests in 2014.

In November users were worried they were being abandoned after the EPG went weeks without an update. They were right.

Today TiVo told its users, “Please think of the environment and dispose of this device at your local e-cycling facility.”

16 Responses

  1. For the sake of everyone who owns a TIVO can they just please provide a way to update the unit so it can take the broadcast EPG rather than the EPG TIVO provides. Sure you won’t have the extra features like season pass, show suggestions, searching for actors, directors, etc (which is easily done online anyway) and you won’t have the remote record Genie (which I only ever used 3 times when I heard about amendments during the day) but at least you will still be able to record based on the EPG and it will adjust times when the EPG updates. Can’t imagine anything worse than having to go to manual recording with the way scheduling is these days…

  2. I’ll miss my TiVo after 9 yrs of faultless 24/7 use. (not including last few months of intermittent EPG down time)
    Although a decade old now TiVo is still way ahead of current PVR technology in basic features and ease of use.

  3. I love my TiVo which is around 9 years old and is working as well as the day I bought it. While I felt this coming, I’m still disappointed.
    I also have a Humax would describe it as only adequate by comparison. It records well, but the ability to record a whole season of a show simply doesn’t work as well as the TiVo. I’m really going to miss the Wishlist and suggestions festures. Like the person above I was hoping for the Bolt, and thought I might buy one in the UQS and bring it home. Thank goodness that hasn’t happened yet.
    I was also advised that my unit is ineligible for the upgrade offer, even though it has connected and updated the EPG daily. I have yet to figure out how to contact them to rectify this error. I also want to know how I can remove the recordings I have on my unit before it is made redundant in a few months. Wish me luck!

    1. I was I a similar situation with BUSH Pvr , after loosing feature no yutube etc , series record died , at first they just replaced them , now they admitt , there will not be a firmware upgrade to fix any issue including it will not pick up the SBS channels EPG , they blamed SBS , as they change there EPG gude signal , moving forward , in my lounge I have a Fetch GEn 2 Box , works realy well , it has received many upgrades to match the fetch Mighty Unit , which I would recommend , has lots off catch up options , series record , your can record 6 channels at the same time , including subscription channels , you can get the Fetch TV channels packs , which some are from Foxtel , I only miss FOX8 / FX Really , you cal watch the subscription channels via a app , on you phone , the picture quality , is fine , at home or away , remember , if you want subscription channels from Fetch TV ,…

  4. I certainly lament the demise of TiVo in Australia. My TiVo died a couple of years ago but until then I found it brilliant to use – easy to program with a terrific season pass and the ability to play the previous 30 minutes of programs recorded by TiVo. Different story with its replacement, a Humax whose remote control gives me continuing grief – despite fresh batteries, sometimes not working for weeks at a time and at other times having to push down the selected buttons for many seconds before your command is accepted. So frustrating.

  5. I have TiVo but recently upgraded to Fetch TV Mighty, it’s a great improvement with Netflix and Stan included as well as Catchup TV but it lacks the proper season pass recording for new episodes only. there’s no option for it, as far as I can tell. it has a pretty good rental service, although at $6 I’d rather rent elsewhere. but they do give you 3 free rentals when you sign up. you can even get Foxtel channels included.

    instead of TiVo calling it quits they should have created a new one that’s an upgrade, much like what Fetch has. maybe have different features or something. it’s a shame cause TiVo is still a good pvr to have if you don’t care about extra features.

  6. I was actually hoping it would come to Australia but with something like Tivo Roamio or Bolt. I might be dreaming or it will happen one day perhaps.

  7. I don’t see any difference from what TiVo is doing and any business that accepted money knowing they may soon no longer be trading. This should become another reason to examine consumer rights as TiVo should offer refunds up to the full value of the product for recent purchases to it’s consumers. Once again Australia’s low population has worked against it as a consumer market.

    1. Hmmm… While I kind of agree with your point, at least because it was sold with a “lifetime” EPG subscription, the fact is that the Tivo hasn’t been sold here in about 5 years.

      I don’t think there’s many “recent purchases” for them to refund…

    1. Ours is just as confusing. Even though we have two Tivos and they have both been in use for many years, right up till the present, apparently only one qualifies for the rebate on a Fetch. So sayeth the email anyway.

      The entire Tivo ride has been pretty bumpy (including our initial purchase which they managed to lose in the mail), looks like they intend to continue that tradition down to the wire.

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