SA Tivos like Discovery Channel...

[James_F]

http://www.tvpredictions.com/tivodiscovery.html

Twice a week, TiVo is automatically switching the channel on its receivers to The Discovery Channel. As a result, many TiVo owners have been tuning in to Discovery whether they wanted to or not.

The Discovery Channel is an investor in the Digital Video Recorder service and Discovery CEO John Hendricks sits on TiVo's board of directors.

However, TiVo says the channel switching is not designed to give Discovery a competitive advantage in a 200-channel universe.

The channel switching takes place in the early morning hours every Tuesday and Thursday. TiVo uses the Discovery signal to download company infomercials and promos, such as a recent advertainment for the movie Daredevil. (Discovery does not air regular programming at that time.)


You are not going crazy, its just your TiVo likes to watch the "Jeff Corwin Experience" :D

[dishrich]

However, TiVo says the channel switching is not designed to give Discovery a competitive advantage in a 200-channel universe.

The channel switching takes place in the early morning hours every Tuesday and Thursday. TiVo uses the Discovery signal to download company infomercials and promos, such as a recent advertainment for the movie Daredevil. (Discovery does not air regular programming at that time.

Mmm, hmm - well, if they REALLY DIDN'T want to give Discovery a competitive advantage, they could just have easily made the Tivo's switch BACK to their previous channel after the download was complete. Since this is a download & NOT a show that I asked to be recorded, I kind of feel it should. But, as long as I can switch BACK, not that big of deal.

[James_F]

Hey they are just bringing you features! :D

[gcutler]

For months I was wondering why the TV was always on Discovery. But in a bout of Insomnia I saw prompt me if it was ok to switch channels. A way around it being on Disc in the morning is to make a manual season pass to record 1 minute of morning news or whatever (and only keep 1 episode max of the show, and give it lowest priority)

[raj2001]

SA TiVo's use Discovery for the service broadcast (Teleworld paid programming). This may explain their liking of discovery. You can always change the channel or watch a recorded show.

[Ryan]

More people looking for a smoking gun when there hasn't been a crime.

[James_F]

I don't like at it that way. Its just interesting to me why the TiVo was always on the Discovery Channel...

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Ryan
More people looking for a smoking gun when there hasn't been a crime.

This is a pretty small issue for most of us (more curiosity), but the "Big Brother worried" segment of the population are just eating this stuff up. What I figure by now is those who are "Sensitive" to the way TiVo does things should have sold their TiVo equipment by now and gone another way. And those who are left are aware and don't care.

I think the only ones really looking for the smoking gun are those who switched away from TiVo and are looking to validate their decision.

[Mark Holtz]

Aproximately what time is this "showcase download"?

[gcutler]

It was like 4am ET or so

[spanishannouncetable]

It's also downloading guide data from the Discovery Channel a lot of the time in these late night recordings. A good chunk of the latest software is dedicated to using this method of bringing in the guide info to shorten the SA's daily phone calls.

The program called "Teleworld Paid Program" that runs early in the morning on the Discovery Channel is where it's located. Sometimes this show contains clips for the Showcases (DirecTiVos get these too), and sometimes it's guide data for the SA TiVos. Cable companies often sell this time for infomercials and block Discovery's Teleworld program, so the guide data has to come from the phone call when it can't access the Teleworld download.

They could put it on another channel, but they have a deal with Discovery for it, so there it is. No conspiracy, no smoking gun, nothing to see here :)