TiVo Spanks Comcast
TiVo Inc., in a stunt designed as a direct slap in the face to Comcast, gave away nearly 2,000 free digital video recorders to Comcast subscribers who showed up at the TiVo office bearing a Comcast bill and a toy for charity. This came as a result of Comcast's flubbed launch of its digital video recorder service in San Francisco, with customer service reps giving subscribers mixed messages about availability of the service. TiVo ran a full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle, calling Comcast the "cable company that stole Christmas." Subsequent articles in the Chronicle and elsewhere generated enough word-of-mouth publicity to draw 2,500 Comcast subscribers to the TiVo offices.
