*edit* I believe this is a NY Times article *edit*

DirecTV Machine Will Compete With TiVo
By ERIC A. TAUB

Published: January 7, 2005


AS VEGAS, Jan. 6 - TiVo, the company that created the market for digital video recorders, received a serious challenge to its business on Thursday when DirecTV, the satellite provider, announced that it would begin offering its own brand of digital video recorder later this year.

The move ends an exclusive relationship between the companies that supplied TiVo with two million of its three million subscribers.

The satellite company hopes that many of its customers who now use machines with TiVo technology will switch to DirecTV's machine.

"We will still support our TiVo service, but our core marketing and sales efforts will be with our new DVR," said Bob Marsocci, a DirecTV spokesman.

For its part, TiVo remains optimistic about the change in relationship. "We fully expect to compete for DirecTV's business," said Brodie Keast, TiVo executive vice president, who noted that the company competed against the Microsoft UltimateTV product for DirecTV subscribers when TiVo started its service in 2000.

DirecTV executives declined to discuss how much longer they would maintain their contractual relationship with TiVo, although Mr. Keast noted that the company's current arrangement to supply TiVo boxes to DirecTV customers runs through the end of 2007.

The new DirecTV digital video recorder is being designed by NDS, which is based in Britain and owned by the News Corporation, which owns a minority interest in DirecTV.

To encourage subscribers to switch, DirecTV will offer advanced features on its device, including longer recording capacity and the ability to use interactive services.

DirecTV subscribers using the new recorder will also be able to record several pay-per-view movies at a time and then pay for a movie only if it is viewed, the company said.

DirecTV also said that it would offer local high-definition TV broadcasts in 12 markets beginning later this year. To increase its channel capacity, the company will launch several satellites designed to carry HDTV programming.

DirecTV will market a home media center by the end of this year that will permit customers to transmit programming stored on a digital recorder to any other television in the house.