YouTube Coming to TiVo, But Only for Under 750,000 Users

Editor's Note: Article Updated 7/21/08

TiVo (TIVO) and YouTube (GOOG) announced a deal that brings YouTube content available to TiVo Series 3 customers. While it's good to see TiVo add more content to its box, something I think it has been severely dragging its feet on, unfortunately it won't have any major impact for either company since it is only available for TiVo customers with a Series 3 box connected via broadband. While TiVo has about 4 million subscribers, only about 750,000 of those are on a Series 3. And out of those 750,000, how many are connected to a broadband connection and not just a phone line? I know of many friends who have a Series 3 but only connect to a phone jack as they don't have a TiVo WiFi adapter and their phone jack is near the TiVo and easy to plug into.

While TiVo does not give out exact numbers on how many Series 3 boxes it has sold, TiVo did e-mail me on 7/21 to say that it has 750,000 Series 2 AND Series 3 TiVo's connected via broadband, excluding DTV (DTV) and Comcast (CMCSA). Since there are more Series 2s out in the market, the number of Series 3 TiVos that make up the 750,000 number is far lower than that. So while the new YouTube offering is available for less than 750,000 customers, a more realistic number is probably under 300,000 if you figure that half of the broadband connected TiVos, if not more, are Series 2. (NewTeeVee has a video of the new service here)

While this will be nice for some customers, the majority of those who view YouTube content will still do so from a computer and not from the TV. Since the Apple TV (AAPL) announcement with YouTube, I have not seen any reports by either company as to what kind of viewing numbers YouTube is getting on Apple's device and clearly it is small. This new announcement is a nice to have option, but won't enable TiVo to sell more units and will make no impact in helping YouTube try and make money from eyeballs.

Comments

[Digenie]

This is great news for everyone, but as I live in the UK I don't know what kind of interface there will be for people trying to use YouTube on the TV.

I watch YouTube on my mobile and it's pretty good, but it is a little tedious trying to type search queries on a limited keyboard.

[wall_st_geek]

"And out of those 750,000, how many are connected to a broadband connection and not just a phone line? I know of many friends who have a Series 3 but only connect to a phone jack..."

Hardly a scientific analysis. I agree that this is good for Tivo, but with the many different types of content enabled for the Series 3, I think the proportion of the 750K is much higher than you think. Also, consider that the 750K is only going to go higher, while the users upgrade to the latest platform - particularly with the prices for the Series 3 continuing to drop.

[texasgolfer]

why do I need to watch YouTube on my TV or telephone for that matter? I doubt it will force a buying decision for anyone.

[tivolutionary]

All our home movies are posted to YouTube for grandma and grandpa, who live on the other coast and are hungry for video of their new grandkids. Being able to pull up all those clips on the TiVo is killer.