Exclusive by Patrick Avenell
Hybrid TV CEO Robbee Minicola has laid out an ambitious sales goal for the TiVo unit, declaring that she wants to more than triple market penetration in just the next seven months. Minicola also singled out one retail group for praise, calling them "pioneers".
In a meeting yesterday, Minicola confirmed that only 14,000 units of the TiVo device has so far been sold. Although this figure is short of what was originally expected, Minicola can be excused from blame because she was not the CEO during the launch and rollout period.
Since becoming CEO of Hybrid TV, the sole local distributor, in October, Minicola has been on a publicity blitz; determined to turn around the negative press and improve the market’s knowledge of the device’s functionality.
So confident is Minicola of success, she has set a very high sales goal for the device.
“We want 50,000 activated units in houses by the end of June,” said Minicola, who continued to justify the heretofore sluggish sales by comparing them to one of TiVo’s implicit competitors.
“We’ve had five to six times the sales of a single leading PVR.”
Although Minicola refused to name this brand, Current.com.au understands that she was referring to the Topfield PVR unit. Unverified reports suggests this model has been selling at around 500 units per month since TiVo was launched.
In addition to her sales goal, Minicola also singled out TiVo’s first retailer, Harvey Norman, for special praise.
“Harvey Norman has been most successful,” she said. “They pioneered consumer electronic retail in Australia.”
“Harvey Norman and Domayne are very critical partners of our and a major client of the Seven Network.”
Hybrid TV is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Seven Network. Harvey Norman and Domayne currently have agreements with Hybrid TV to sell the TiVo device.