It isn’t really much of a sale though, you can save $20 on the TiVo Premiere. So it is $79.99 instead of $99.99, but there is no discount on the Premiere XL or the Premiere Elite. Since Amazon has the Premiere for $69.99, I’d skip this sale.

However, I think a better deal is www.tivo.com/freeslide – you pay full price for the Premiere, but they include a free TiVo Slide remote, which is a $60 value – or $41.39 at Amazon. I use the Slide as my main remote and I definitely think it is worth it. With this deal you pay $99.99 for the Premiere and Slide, which is less than the $111.38 the two would be at Amazon. So if you’re planning to get a Slide Remote with your Premiere, this deal is worth it.

I think if they really wanted to run a holiday sale they could’ve offered the Premiere + Slide bundle for the $79.99 price. But they probably don’t want to upset their retail partners, like Amazon, by undercutting them too much.

TiVo is also running a new sweepstakes. There are a few prizes:

5. PRIZES. Grand Prize (1): Grand Prize (1): One (1) TiVo Premiere DVR, one (1) year of TiVo service, one (1) TiVo Wireless G Network Adapter, and one (1) 42” Insignia Connected TV. Approximate Retail Value (ARV) of Grand Prize: $1,099.85.

Instant Win Prizes: Three (3) TiVo Premiere DVRs with three (3) months of free TiVo service, ARV: $479.88; Ten (10) Fifty Dollar ($50) Amazon.com Gift Cards, ARV: $500; One hundred twenty-five (120) three (3) month subscription to Hulu Plus, ARV: $2,876.40.

That’s worth an entry.

• TiVo® Premiere DVR
• Product Lifetime service
• TiVo® Slide Remote
• TiVo® Wireless G Adapter
• 42″ Insignia Connected HDTV
• 6 FREE months of Hulu Plus

In addition to the Grand Prize, 25 first prize winners will receive 6 FREE months of Hulu Plus.

Interesting that they’re giving away a TiVo Premiere and one of the new Best Buy Insignia TiVo-powered Connected TVs. Perhaps this lends weight to the rumor that the Insignia TVs will be able to stream content from the Premiere once streaming support is launched in general? They could give away any TV.

The sweepstakes is open to legal residents of the 50 US states plus D.C., and you have to enter by 9/22/11. So get to it, enter now.

Oh, and you need to actually enter the sweepstakes. It happens every time TiVo does this, people post comments on their wall as if that’s how you enter.

MARKETING. Information collected during the entry period will be used for marketing purposes, and Entrants may receive text messages and emails providing valuable offers. Entrants may stop messages by texting STOP to 42054; Entrants may follow instructions contained in email communications to stop future communications, however, Sponsor may still use email address to notify entrant if they have been selected as a winner.

So what’s the prize worth giving up your digits for? How about having your phone paid for for a year?

PRIZES. A total of two (2) prizes will be awarded: Payment of Selected Entrant’s mobile phone bill (up to $150 a month, plus 25% tax for one year). Approximate retail value (“ARV”) of Prize is $2,250. Total retail value of all prizes $4,500.

Also, once you complete your entry you’ll be redirected to another page with a special offer. Buy a TiVo Premiere for $99.99 and commit to one year of monthly service, or buy product lifetime service, and get a TiVo Slide Remote free – a $60 value. And the good news for existing subscribers is that the units appear to be eligible for MSD pricing. That’s not always true for TiVo’s promotions.

And now you have the link to the deal without entering the sweepstakes. Don’t say I never gave you anything.

I picked this up from Facebook – Best Buy is offering a free TiVo Slide Remote, a $59.99 MSRP value, free with the purchase of a TiVo Premiere at $99.99. The flier ad is for in-store purchases, but I also found the same deal online.

Amazon is currently selling just the TiVo Premiere for $99.99 and the TiVo Slide for an additional $46.00, so this looks like a good deal. I think TiVo should be bundling the Slide Remote standard, really.

Edit: Ah, I missed something earlier – a footnote on the ad. This deal requires you to subscribe to the $19.99/month service for a minimum of 1-year. It isn’t clear if you’d be able to subscribe to product lifetime instead or not, so you might want to ask before buying – or remember the 30-day return window.

It isn’t just the keyboard, since the remote uses Bluetooth it works without a clear line of site or needing to point the remote at the TiVo. And, like the TiVo Glo remotes, this remote is also a learning remote so you don’t have to worry about the code for your TV or A/V receiver not being pre-programmed. I really think TiVo should be bundling this remote in with the Premiere, at the very least the Premiere XL, as QWERTY remotes are increasingly common with STB and connected TVs that handle Over-The-Top (OTT) content. But until they do, at least the cost of acquiring one is a lot lower now. Note that this remote works with the TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo Premiere – but not the TiVo Series1 or Series2.