TiVo has begun notifying customers of a significant change to one of its longest-standing and most popular DVR features. Starting November 2, 2026, the current version of SkipMode that allows users to jump over commercial breaks with a single button press on the remote will no longer be available. The company is instead preparing to […]
at their peak, the auto skip didn’t even exist… just the manually-activated 30-sec skip that you had to enable yourself like a cheat code in a video game.
replaytv got sued out of existence due to the same basic functionality. dish’s hopper still exists but i think they made a deal with the networks (we won’t sue you if you delay the feature for a number of hours).
the networks will sue as soon as tivo makes it a specific line item on a bill for the specific feature of automatically skipping commercial breaks. and that’s on top of subscribers leaving due to the rug pull… but where tf they gonna go? alternatives kinda suck and are not as easy to set up or use.
I’ve had TiVo since the beginning. I still have an antenna version. It has a lifetime service plan. I won’t pay for the premium skip. Using FF is just as easy.
The cause is capitalism. Every company is driven by an insatiable profit motive to endlessly grow, and extract as much value from consumers and employees as possible, like a cancer.
You could perhaps still have enshittification in a worker owned organization. It seems more likely to happen when the decisions are being made by rich ghouls and absent shareholders, rather than the people who actually made the product.
TiVo still exists?!
Not much longer, by the sounds of it.
at their peak, the auto skip didn’t even exist… just the manually-activated 30-sec skip that you had to enable yourself like a cheat code in a video game.
replaytv got sued out of existence due to the same basic functionality. dish’s hopper still exists but i think they made a deal with the networks (we won’t sue you if you delay the feature for a number of hours).
the networks will sue as soon as tivo makes it a specific line item on a bill for the specific feature of automatically skipping commercial breaks. and that’s on top of subscribers leaving due to the rug pull… but where tf they gonna go? alternatives kinda suck and are not as easy to set up or use.
I’ve had TiVo since the beginning. I still have an antenna version. It has a lifetime service plan. I won’t pay for the premium skip. Using FF is just as easy.
That’s wild.
Yeah apparently they’re feeling the effects of continued enshittification of everything.
The cause is capitalism. Every company is driven by an insatiable profit motive to endlessly grow, and extract as much value from consumers and employees as possible, like a cancer.
You could perhaps still have enshittification in a worker owned organization. It seems more likely to happen when the decisions are being made by rich ghouls and absent shareholders, rather than the people who actually made the product.
A big problem is often lack of competition.
And their response appears to be “if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em.”
I blame private equity.
We already have a grown up generation who don’t know the meaning of the “tivoisation” word.
I mean, it’s been 20 years since GPLv3 came out.
That was my question as well.
That was what I came here to say. Glad to see it’s top comment. The fediverse does not disappoint.