Tivo Case Study

1) TiVo holds several competitive advantages:

- Innovation: TiVo has innovated its product to provide premium service applications like HMO and unique opportunities for advertisers and networks to air "showcases" Ð'- four-six minute long commercials.

- Patents: TiVo was early to the market, and therefore holds several significant patents that keep competitors from copying key functions of the product like optimization of disk space and scheduling.

- Licenses: TiVo has a number of prominent licensees which has made it easer to penetrate more homes.

- Brand Equity: TiVo has a strong following of brand advocates and has become synonymous

with digitally recording television programming (TiVo-ing).

2) TiVo acts as the distributor of home entertainment content. It does not produce its own content, but instead allows consumers to view, record, and manage entertainment content from television, movie, and audio producers.

3) TiVo's number one ally is its consumers. It has an extremely loyal following of brand advocates who help raise awareness through word-of-mouth and continue purchasing the service. In conjunction with these consumers are content producers who continue to provide home entertainment which these consumers want to watch and "TiVo." Competitors like Motorola, Echostar, Akimbo, and telecommunications companies are enemies of TiVo since they provide a slightly less sophisticated product at a cheaper fee. Direct TV was once an ally and helped build awareness of TiVo, but is now an enemy since they are going after the DVR market.

4) The value proposition of TiVo is strong, however, as competition closes the gap TiVo is becoming less and less differentiated. To sustain its position in the value chain, TiVo must continue to innovate and provide unique

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