E. Stephen Mack, Director of Service Operations at TiVo, has posted a summary of TiVo’s new pricing plans at TiVoCommunity.com

Nothing new from what has been posted here so far, but that’s an semi-official FAQ that might make folks more comfortable with the details.

TiVo’s corporate blog has an entry that interviews Shannon and Jason from the TCO team.

It is a good entry overall, but being a geek with a huge TiVo RFE list, one thing popped out at me:
When will it get to point when it will show only channels that you get?
SHANNON & JASON: We’re working on it—next release.

Yay! That’s been a complaint with TCO since it first rolled out – that it was never aware of your personal lineup, just the generic lineup for your area. And I’m hoping that this is the gateway to more. I’ve said for years that TiVo should have an opt-in program to have your personal info uploaded, so you can see your Now Playing, To Do, etc, info via the website.

Jason also echoed a point I’ve made a few times:

JASON: One of the other things about TCO, is that developing stuff online incurs less cost than developing software for the DVR. The online team, everyone on the team from project managers to engineers, gets to have a lot of fun. We get to spearhead a lot of technology and we can test features online without the overhead of DVR software development. We are always working on new features and we can afford to take some risks and gambles.

Developing web-based applications isn’t as restricted as developing ‘on DVR’ applications. I used to wish that Teach TiVo would return to the TiVo – but a long time ago I realized that it’d be even better to have that kind of feature implemented on the web interface. Also additional ways to look at your recording schedules – calendar views, highlighting conflicts, etc – could all be done comparatively easily on the web. I’d love to see TiVo do more in this direction. (And I’d love to be on that team, but that’s something else. )

Since TiVo just dropped lifetime because, at $299, it was too good of a deal to be economical for them, I’m curious how much people would be willing to spend on lifetime if TiVo were to re-introduce it at a higher price. Note, this is ‘service-only’ – the price of lifetime without a bundled unit, to make it apples to apples with the current (and soon to be departed) lifetime.
The poll.

I said I’d post things as I pick them up, and I’ve been reading slogging through hundreds of posts over at TiVoCommunity.com were TiVo reps have been fielding many questions. From that I’ve picked up some more info:
- Current subscribers are unaffected. Payments continue as is.
- The new pricing will roll out next Wednesday, the 15th. Lifetime will go away on the 15th, or soon there after. Don’t expect it to be around after the 15th.
- If you sign-up for one of the new 1,2,3 year plans, when the plan expires you will continue to be billed at the same rate month to month. Or you can call and change your subscription to whatever the then current ‘service-only’ rate is, which will probably be less. (That’s the $12.95 rate today.) Personally I think that’s a little sneaky – it should auto-drop to the lower rate. This way it is a tax on the lazy or ignorant who don’t call, or know to call, to switch.
- You can still activate monthly service-only for $6.95 if you have an existing full priced subscription.
- The new pricing plans count as full priced subscriptions, so if you have one you can add another box at the $6.95 rate. (This is different from the trial last fall.)
- Service-only pricing will remain $12.95. Sometime soon there will be three new pre-paid options for 1, 2, and 3 year service-only plans added as well.

Note that if prices don’t change, you’d be better off going with one year then dropping down over a longer period if you plan to pay monthly:
2 years: 12 x $19.95 + 12 x $12.95 = $394.80 vs. 24 x $18.95 = $454.80 — $60 more!
3 years: 12 x $19.95 + 24 x $12.95 = $550.20 vs. 36 x $16.95 = $610.20 — $60 more!

Pre-paid up front works out:
2 years: $224 + 12 x $12.95 = $379 vs. $369 — save $10
3 years: $224 + 24 x $12.95 = $534.80 vs. $496 — save $65.80

Of course, there will also be pre-paid service-only plans, not yet announced, which could shift things around even more.

I hope that helps. Feel free to ask questions.