But TiVo spent much of its prime years locked in court battles with major players<\/a> in the television and digital video space. Motorola, Time Warner Cable<\/a>, AT&T<\/a>, Dish Network, Cisco, and Verizon<\/a> all found themselves on the receiving end of a patent infringement lawsuit from TiVo. TiVo came out victorious in almost every single one. The US Patent Office even agreed to reexamine the patent on two separate occasions and reaffirmed its claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n If the company had been focused on revenue sources outside the courtroom, it could have been at the forefront of the smart TV rollout.<\/p>\n Licensing its technology became the primary way TiVo made money as it entered the 2010s. The problem was, by then, the writing was on the wall. Netflix launched its streaming service in January 2007. Hulu entered beta later that year and launched publicly in March of 2008. That year also marked the launch of Roku\u2019s first device and the earliest models of modern smart TVs, like the Samsung PAVV Bordeaux TV 750.<\/p>\n DVRs became standard issue with most cable TV packages. Sure, TiVo\u2019s interface was slicker, and it had advanced features, such as remotely scheduling recordings via TiVo Central Online or transferring them to a computer with TiVoToGo. But spending $200 or more on a separate DVR in 2008 (at least if you wanted HD tuners), plus an additional subscription cost on top of your cable bill, was an increasingly hard sell when Time Warner would give you a DVR that was good enough.<\/p>\n Roku was offering simple-to-use streaming set-top boxes at impulse purchase prices \u2014 as low as $49.99<\/a> by 2011. Google pushed prices even lower with the Chromecast in 2013<\/a>. Smart TV operating systems were becoming increasingly capable. TiVo was adding support for Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services, but it seemed to constantly be playing catch-up as it entered the new decade.<\/p>\n TiVo\u2019s hardware had stagnated<\/a>. It was wasting time on features like the ability to order Domino\u2019s from your TV<\/a>. And its biggest money maker \u2014 a patent focused on manipulating broadcast television \u2014 was increasingly becoming obsolete as cord-cutting began to grow in popularity.<\/p>\n According to nScreenMedia traditional pay TV subscriptions peaked in the US in 2010 at around 103 million<\/a>, or roughly 89 percent of households. In 2025, that number is down to just 49.6 million<\/a>, or 37.6 percent of households. The most popular streaming services are now easily outpacing linear pay TV as they copy some of its moves by leaning into live content anchored by sports and other spectacles that draw eyeballs to now-unskippable ads. At the end of 2024, Netflix had 89.6 million subscribers<\/a> and Disney Plus 56.8 million<\/a> in the US and Canada. (The companies report subscriptions by region only, not country.) As TiVo continued to battle companies like Google<\/a> and Time Warner in court, its customer base was drying up.<\/p>\n TiVo was eventually purchased by Rovi<\/a>, a company whose primary business is hoarding patents and either licensing them<\/a> to other companies or suing companies<\/a> in order to force them to license their technology. This, sadly, was to be TiVo\u2019s fate going forward. When it was purchased by tech licensing firm Xperi in 2020, the press release announcing the merger didn\u2019t tout best-in-class hardware or innovative set-top box software. Instead, it bragged<\/a> about having \u201cone of the industry\u2019s largest and most diverse intellectual property (IP) licensing platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n TiVo\u2019s ill-fated Android TV dongle. Image: TiVo<\/p>\n After its merger with Xperi, TiVo wouldn\u2019t launch another set-top box. Its last model, the TiVo Edge<\/a>, was released in 2019. And this month, the company confirmed it had quietly sold the last of its stock on September 30th and would be exiting the hardware business<\/a>.<\/p>\n TiVo says it plans to focus on its fledgling smart TV OS<\/a> \u2014 a move that\u2019s probably 15 years too late. Perhaps if the company had been focused on revenue sources outside the courtroom, it could have been at the forefront of the smart TV rollout. Maybe it could have developed its own streaming-first device that was more than a lazy (and late) reskin of Android TV<\/a>. TiVo\u2019s UI and iconic peanut remote were beloved. Its brand was a household name. But, rather than build a platform to power the next generation of televisions, it seemed focused on milking every dollar out of companies clearly heading towards obsolescence.<\/p>\n Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Terrence O’BrienClose Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All by Terrence O’Brien<\/a><\/p>\n GadgetsCloseGadgets<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Gadgets<\/a><\/p>\n ReportCloseReport<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n![\"TiVo\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tivo_stream_4k_hero.jpg\"\/)
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