Continuing to straddle the line in the video industry while responding to new competition in the consumer networked DVR market, TiVo has announced a new retail version of its Bolt DVR targeted directly to cord cutters.
The Bolt OTA for Antenna delivers four tuners and a one terabyte hard drive capable of recording 150 hours of HD programming. The 4K-capable box includes TiVo’s popular user experience, as well as access to popular OTT services, and retails for $250. TiVo is cutting its monthly DVR service charge for the Bolt OTA from $14.99 a month to $6.99 a month. There as also a $250 lifetime service fee option.
TiVo has targeted the cord cutter market for some time with its Roamio OTA DVR. But it hasn’t offered an OTA retail version of the Bolt since it introduced the set-top product to the cable TV service provider market four years ago. But giving the retail market the same tools as it offers to service providers does not put TiVo’s two product lines in conflict, the company insisted.
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“For several years TiVo has offered a product targeting cord cutters with the Roamio OTA DVR. The new Bolt OTA for antenna is an upgrade aimed at this market,” said Ted Malone, VP of consumer products and services for TiVo. “TiVo also offers a six-tuner version of the Bolt Vox designed specifically for digital cable customers. With the rapidly changing media and entertainment landscape, cable operators recognize that they face a range of competition–over-the-top providers, virtual MPVD operators (Playstation Vue, YouTube TV, Sling TV), among others – offering cord cutter options, which are more disruptive than TiVo’s Bolt OTA.
TiVo is extending availability of its premium DVR to the retail over-the-air market just after Amazon debuted its own network DVR, the Fire TV Recast, which sells for $230 and includes no service fee.
