Seven Network, through Hybrid Television Services, has found another way to get TiVo to consumers in Australia – the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. Members of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program may now redeem their points to acquire a TiVo, or combine their points with cash in Points Plus Pay to obtain TiVo at a lower cost. If you’re a member of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program you’ll find TiVo in the Frequent Flyer Store.
Via Smarthouse.
From the “not so much about gizmos as about where we get them” department:
High-profile North American electronics retailer Circuit City, a chain nearly as ubiquitous in the US as Best Buy, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This comes a week after the company announced that it was closing 155 stores as part of an effort to improve its cash position going into the holiday retail season. This, in turn, was presumably spurred at least in part by the New York Stock Exchange’s notification to Circuit City on Oct. 30 that its stock no longer meets the NYSE’s requirements for listing.
The holiday season’s expected to be brutal, especially for retailers in Circuit City’s line, which is no real surprise. They’re basically toy stores for grown-ups, and people don’t buy many toys when they’re either out of work or worried that they soon will be (in short, when the sound of the US economy collapsing is audible in Buenos Aires).
Here’s a list of the stores to be closed. On the plus side for those of you who do have some cash to spend on gizmos this Christmas, chances are they’ll be offering some interesting liquidation deals at those stores, especially given that they’ll be liquidating during the run-up to Black Friday.
Seven Network has release the first sales figures for TiVo in Australia, and since they went on sale in July about 12,000 units have been sold, according to the Australian Financial Review. Seven is also believed to be negotiating further retail deals with Bing Lee, The Good Guys, Retravision, and Myer, in addition to their existing partners.
“Our aim was to double the size of the digital video recorder marker, which was about 50,000 in 2007,” Mr Warburton said. “We are on track to sell 25,000 by the end of December and are confident of reaching our 50,000 target.”
The 50,000 figure excludes DVRs sold by pay-television companies such as Foxtel, which has sold over 365,000 iQ & iQ2 DVRs since February 2005. Another pay-TV vendor, Austar United Communications reported 57,744 MyStar recorders sold by late October.
Seven says TiVo sales are running ahead of targets, due perhaps to their extensive marketing campaign. Seven spent an estimated AUD$3.5 million worth of airtime to promote TiVo during the Summer Olympics (which Seven Network aired). Since the Olympics their monthly marketing spend has been roughly AUD$200,000 between TV and print.
Overall it sounds like TiVo is doing fairly well down under.
TiVo issued a press release today announcing the release of their F3Q09 financial results and their next quarterly financial call:
TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) announced today that it will release financial results for the third quarter ended October 31, 2008 after the market closes on Tuesday, November 25, 2008.
TiVo will host a conference call and webcast to discuss its third quarter financial and operating results and guidance outlook for the fourth quarter at 2:00 pm P.T. (5:00 pm E.T.) on the same day. To listen to the discussion, please visit http://www.tivo.com/ir and click on the link provided for the webcast. The webcast will be archived and available through December 2, 2008.
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