Aussie TiVo to go on sale next week

TiVo will be available for sale in Australia next week with a price of AU$700, after being beaten to the punch by Foxtel's new HD+ service by almost a month.

Harvey Norman executive director, David Ackery, told industry publication Current.com.au that the TiVo box will be available for sale on 1 July, beating media speculation of a mid-July release.

Ackery was unable to reveal the price of the box — which no longer attracts a monthly subscription — but the Australian Financial Review has quoted "insiders" as saying it will sell for AU$700.

The release of Seven's TiVo box is just in time for the company's HD coverage of the Olympic Games in August.

Seven originally planned to charge around $10 a month to cover licensing fees from TiVo and charge around $500 for the box, though this appears to have been scrapped. Seven will reportedly now pay a commission per box sold.

Foxtel's HD+ service officially launched on Sunday and is seen by many in the industry as the main competitor to the TiVo box.

The TiVo HD DVR box is available in the United States on a number of different plans, but the equivalent platform (lifetime service) is available for US$399. The model available locally likely differs from the States in that it won't be able to decode cable services like Foxtel.

Features of the Australian box are believed to include dual HD tuners, around 250GB HDD space (based on its ability to record 20 hours of HD content), HDMI connection and eSATA.

An Ethernet connection is expected to form a significant part of the box's capabilities with the ability to record remotely, port files across to a PC, and download additional movies and TV channels from the internet.

Representatives from Seven and Harvey Norman were unavailable for comment.