TiVo Will Fail, says Pay TV Executive

Pay TV sales company Multi Channel Network has cast doubt on the future of the digital video-recording platform TiVo, which is backed by the Seven Network, telling advertisers the venture may never get off the ground. Rob Leach, head of MCN’s interactive television division and formerly of British pay-TV company BSkyB, said TiVo had bombed in Britain after proving to be a difficult product to market partly due to high set-top box costs. The comments come after media buyers denied a report last week that 20 advertisers had paid $1 million to participate in interactive advertising trials on the TiVo platform