Friends, our long national nightmare is over. As the CBC is reporting, TiVo is officially on its way across the border:
The TiVo set-top device, which allows viewers to record shows and skip commercials, will be available across Canada – except in Quebec – through Best Buy, Future Shop, The Brick and London Drug stores for $199. Device owners also need to subscribe to the TiVo service, which has a monthly subscription price of $12.95, with discounts available on long-term contracts.
For pioneering folks (Rob clears his throat loudly, points at himself), TiVo’s been here for well over a year – provided you don’t mind crossing the border to buy it. And much as I’d like you to think I’ve prevailed heroically against incredible odds (I am, arguably, the national poster child for Canadian TiVo adoption… and by “arguably”, I mean “if you’re really willing to stretch the definition of every word in that phrase”), our experience has been a lot smoother than the CBC suggests it has:
Some Canadians have been able to use TiVos bought in the United States but have reported problems as it has not been officially supported by the manufacturer.
Actually, we couldn’t find a way in which it wasn’t supported, apart from one initial glitch around ZIP codes, the lack of a major Canadian retailer stocking it. (Here’s one support experience we had.) Things like buying movies and TV shows from Amazon.com aren’t on the table, but that has nothing to do with TiVo and everything to do with rights licensing. And you can’t get the HD TiVo, because Canada’s cable providers are dragging their heels on supporting CableCARD.
Oh, and Merry Christmas, Michael Geist.
It’ll be interesting to see how much that changes in the next few months and weeks. For what it’s worth, here’s TiVo’s page for Canadian customers.