Tom Rogers TiVo - P 2013
Getty ImagesTo hear TiVo CEO Tom Rogers tell it, television providers like Dish, DirecTV and major cable companies have been supplying their customers with DVRs that are inferior to the ones provided by smaller operators that have partnered with his company.
Rogers made his case on Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs 22nd Annual Communacopia Conference in New York.
STORY: TiVo CEO Tom Rogers: Tech’s Major Players Have Let TV Down
“Even though they have the scale and they have the resources, it may not be in their DNA to actually be leading innovators,” he said of the biggest providers that have shunned a partnership with TiVo in favor of creating their own DVRs.
TiVo has partnerships with 10 of the top 20 cable providers, though they are primarily tier-2 companies. This fact prompted Rogers to recall a cable TV executive — whom he did not name — marveling that “by virtue of where TiVo is being rolled out, a customer in suburban Anchorage has a better video experience than somebody living at Park Avenue and 68th Street in the middle of the media capital of the world.”
Rogers added: “And that’s not sustainable.”
TiVo’s deals with TV providers represent about 10 million households, though only about 25 percent take TiVo thus far, Rogers said, representing lots of potential for growth even before more domestic and international relationships are factored in.
