The full history of TiVo, and how it changed TV forever

For a while, it seemed like everyone had a TiVo. It was a plot point on major TV shows; it had A-list Hollywood fans; it became a verb as ubiquitous as Google or Xerox. The love was well-earned, since TiVo had created a product that felt genuinely like magic. You could pause live TV. And rewind it. And even set shows to record for later, knowing they’d be there whenever you needed them.

There’s a reason you almost certainly don’t have a TiVo now, though. The company quickly became a victim of its own success, and never managed to turn its game-changing concept into a big business or a truly lasting hit product. Meanwhile, the changes it helped bring about in our consumption habits eventually left TiVo behind. We all live in the world TiVo imagined — but we mostly do it without TiVo.

On this episode of Version History, the final episode of our second season, we trace the story of TiVo from clever startup to Hollywood darling to licensing machine. David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and author and journalist Emily Nussbaum discuss what made TiVo so special at the time, how it changed both the shows we watch and how we watch them, and what happened when the TiVo tech became essentially ubiquitous. Turns out, we all miss our TiVos — but we’re probably not getting another one anytime soon.

Since this is the end of our season, we’re taking a few weeks off to get the next batch of episodes ready. If you want to make sure you get every new episode as soon as it drops, there are ways to subscribe to Version History:

If you want to know more about the history of TiVo, and the way it changed our TV habits, here are some links to get you started: