YouTube Coming To TiVo, But For Less Than 750,000 Users

Updated Post: TiVo and YouTube announced a deal today that brings YouTube content available to TiVo Series 3 customers. While it's good to see TiVo add more content to their box, something I think they have been severely dragging their feet on, unfortunately it won't have any major impact for either company since it is only available for TiVo customers with a Series 3 box connected via broadband. While TiVo has about 4 million subscribers, only about 750,000 of those are on a Series 3. And out of those 750,000, how many are connected to a broadband connection and not just a phone line? I know of many friends who have a Series 3 but only connect to a phone jack as they don't have a TiVo WiFi adapter and their phone jack is near the TiVo and easy to plug into. While TiVo does not give out exact numbers on how many Series 3 boxes they have sold, TiVo did e-mail me on 7/21 to say that they have 750,000 Series 2 AND Series 3 TiVo's connected via broadband, excluding DTV and Comcast. Since they are more Series 2's out in the market, the number of Series 3 TiVo's that make up the 750,000 number is far lower than that. So while the new YouTube offering is available for less than 750,000 customers, a more realistic number is probably under 300,000 if you figure that half of the broadband connected TiVo's, if not more, are Series 2. (NewTeeVee has a video of the new service here)

While this will be nice for some customers, the majority of those who view YouTube content will still do so from a computer and not from the TV. Since the Apple TV announcement with YouTube, I have not seen any reports by either company as to what kind of viewing numbers YouTube is getting on Apple's device and clearly it is small. This new announcement is a nice to have option, but won't enable TiVo to sell more units and will make no impact in helping YouTube try and make money from eyeballs.

Comments

[Bill G]

Dan, bingo. This is yet another in the series of TiVo "We are not irrelevant" PR announcements. I posted an updated chart showing the US DVR installed base breakdown on our site today if you're interested. 36+ million DVRs, fewer than 4 million are active TiVo subscribers.

[geraldz]

Dan - I watch YouTube, Hulu and whatever else is on my laptop ON MY TELEVISION. No box required. All it took was a $20 cable. Its so easy. Here's how:

http://zipityzap.com/pctotv.html

[Dave Zatz]

Where did that 750,000 number come from? I've been looking for the same... TiVo doesn't seem to directly break it down in their quarterly calls, unless I missed it. Is it inclusive of both Series 3 and TiVo HD models?

[Dan Rayburn]

TiVo was quoted in an AP article as saying one fifth of the 3.8 million units sold were Series 3.