TiVO with lifetime subscriptions
Don’t you hate it when Netflix raises its prices by $2 a month? If only you could just own the service outright and say goodbye to recurring payments. In 2002, you could with a lifetime subscription to TiVo. Lifetime means the life of the box, not your life or some sort of warranty. Either way, paying $299 up-front (after a $50 price hike in 2002) meant saving and recording shows without spending another dime. As we covered back in 2002, TiVo prices increased to encourage people to pay for a monthly subscription.
We even suggested giving customers TiVo boxes for free and charging $20 a month for listings while locking people into two or three-year contracts. “You can bet that if a TiVo box cost $29 with a three-year service plan, lots more people would be buying them.” I’m not so sure.
