Tivo Case

This case is a classic example of exciting high potential technical innovations losing to the general inertia in adoption, primarily due to weak marketing strategies. TiVo being the pioneer in DVRs, were and are poised to capture the entire Television industry. Their weakness in Strategy stems from an imbalance in resource distribution between R&D and Marketing. The theme inferred being, Venture into only those domains in which the organization has considerable expertise and strong management strategy. Technical innovation which is ahead of its time must be released in a phased manner, from general consumer to niche segments, keeping it affordable to the normal consumer. Also, packaging the product and partnerships to completely profit
At the outset it was poised to redefine TV viewing experience, the Stand-Alone DVR was an intuitively developed and packaged product, which captured the niche, high income urban segment instantaneously. But TiVo's management missed the opportunity to release lower versions, of the DVR which could be cheaper to purchase, install and subscribe to, thereby effectively limiting their target market, with high unintended consequences. But, TiVo was recognized as technological innovator in the DVR sphere which gave positive branding. TiVo's strategy of being only a "Facilitator" with dependence on MSOs or Cable Operators for content distribution lost them a crucial leverage. TiVo must have transformed its image from a CE producer to a TV/Internet content distributor similar to the MSOs, which would have let TiVo leverage its technical innovation to its benefit and become market leader in VOD,DVR etc. The immediate release of comparable DVRs by MSOs is a measure of TiVo's technical success, but exemplifies TiVo's lack of control on its IP which is the primary reason for its lack of growth. This forced TiVo to make partnerships with MSOs, who were its
TiVo will benefit by maintaining a steady partnership with Comcast as TiVo would penetrate millions of households, which can be capitalized upon with its unique advertising features. The Audience Research and Measurement wing of TiVo can become a major source of revenue due to the large user base and its 'per-second' evaluation of audience characteristics, which is unparalleled, even by segment leader Nielsen Media Research. Intellectual Property licensing is another segment, TiVo must pursue. In view of the April 2011 ruling in-favor of TiVo against EchoStar for IP infringement, TiVo can generate easy revenue through licensing even from competitors, who will be compelled to license or partner with TiVo to use its patented technology. This will essentially place TiVo in its rightful position as the market leader for DVR solutions with Internet-TV and On-Demand TV features coupled with refined and advanced User