Today was my interview with TiVo. Everyone seemed really nice and personable and I felt that things went very well. Nevertheless, it was a long day and I was pretty tired by the end of it.

Paul, my boss-to-be, and I had known each other for some time through my work at Hughes Network Systems on our DirecTiVo (DirecTV with TiVo) line of set-top boxes. My impression was that TiVo was becoming a software only company so I didn’t even consider TiVo as a place of employment after my layoff from HNS. Being a long-time Mac afficionado, I was initially looking to try to get a job at Apple, and had emailed Paul to see if he had any contacts at Apple. Responding to my inquiry about Apple, Paul asked if I had any desire to consider a position at TiVo. I can’t get into any specifics, but suffice it to say that TiVo, at least at the moment, has plans in the hardware arena.

There were no real hiccups during the interview. I was asked about my background and experience while at the same time, I was given the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. My primary concern was the long-term viability of TiVo. TiVo pretty much invented the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) category, there is little doubt that TiVo’s UI (User Interface) is best in class, and its product is loved by virtually everyone who has used it.

However, there has been a recent upsurge of competition with many of the cable companies introducing their own DVRs. In many cases, the cable companies are offering their DVRs for much less than TiVo in terms of hardware cost and service, often giving the box away while charging a lower monthly fee. Likewise, TiVo’s primary partner, DirecTV, has made waves about abandoning TiVo and basing their future DVR products on technology from NDS (NDS is a subsidiary of News Corp., the company who owns DirecTV).

I raised this issue with each interviewer in an effort to gain as many perspectives as possible. Obviously, nothing’s for certain, but I think that TiVo has a good shot at not only surviving, but becoming a successful company. TiVo has incredible brand awareness, so much so that most people refer to DVR technology as “TiVo”, just like Xerox is to photocopies and Kleenex is to tissue paper. Although it can be debated how much TiVo is actually benefiting from this, the fact remains that TiVo has significant mindshare and has a brand awareness that most companies envy.

In addition to TiVo’s strong brand recognition, they continue to innovate and lead the way in a market segment that everybody seems to want to get into. The PC wars are over. The next big battle will be for the living room, and in that battle, DVRs are just the beginning. As content, especially video content, becomes increasingly digitized and the internet becomes a more capable vehicle of delivering that content, opportunities arise for innovative upstarts. The trend is unmistakable and everyone from Microsoft to Sony to Comcast is trying to position themselves. Competition generally validates a market so considering the heavyweight competitors that are trying to compete with TiVo, this must be a pretty desirable market.

And what many seem to miss is that this is not a zero sum game. The addressable market is enormous – basically everyone with a TV – so even if TiVo only gets, say, a 20% marketshare, that should still be a very nice business. Nothing is assured, but I am optimistic about TiVo’s future.

Posted by Roger at 7:46 PM.