Hulu Plus on TiVo promos pop up in stores and online, suggest launch soon
Although TiVo announced it would offer Hulu Plus back in September we're still waiting for it to arrive on those Premiere DVRs. Twitter user @dlayphoto spotted these materials in their local Best Buy promising six months …
Context & Ripple Effects
TiVo told customers back in September 2010 that Hulu Plus was coming to its Premiere DVRs, but eight months on the app has yet to ship — a gap GigaOM flagged in December when it reported that cable-operator DVRs would not carry Hulu Plus at all, leaving retail hardware like TiVo as the main route for pay-TV subscribers who want the service alongside live cable. Now promotional materials spotted at Best Buy and online, offering six months of Hulu Plus with the box, point to an imminent launch rather than another delay.
The six-month bundle matters because it signals a retail marketing push, not just a software update: TiVo is preparing to sell the Hulu partnership on store shelves as a differentiator against the operator-issued DVRs that per the GigaOM reporting will not get Hulu Plus.
First-order effects
- TiVo Premiere owners finally gain access to Hulu Plus's subscription streaming library, closing an eight-month gap between the September announcement and delivery.
- Best Buy shelf materials with a six-month Hulu Plus offer give TiVo a concrete retail pitch for the Premiere ahead of the launch.
Second-order effects
- Cable operators' DVRs, which GigaOM reported are shut out of Hulu Plus, face a new comparison point: a subscriber wanting Hulu alongside cable must add a retail box like the Premiere, giving TiVo leverage in the living room.
- Hulu gains distribution onto a DVR platform whose users already pay for television — an audience segment its console and connected-TV deals reach differently, and one its cable-DVR exclusions have so far left unserved.
Third-order effects
- If retail DVRs become the reliable home for third-party streaming apps while operator hardware stays closed, the set-top market splits into walled-garden operator boxes and open retail devices — pressuring both sides on which services they must carry to stay competitive.
- Six-month bundling of a streaming subscription with hardware points toward promotions becoming a standard acquisition tactic as subscription video services fight for placement on every screen in the pay-TV household.
The trend: Subscription streaming services are expanding across third-party consumer hardware faster than cable operators' own DVRs can accommodate them, making retail devices like TiVo the workaround for cord-subscribers who want both.