TiVo Celebrates Blue Moon

How it all began

The idea for TiVo began to take shape in the late nineties. Mike Ramsay (favorite TV show: Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and Jim Barton (favorite TV show: Twilight Zone), were working together on the Full-Service Network Project in Orlando, Florida, a joint venture between Time-Warner and SGI, to create the first large-scale interactive television system.

It didn’t take the two long to realize that they could build the same type of system, with far greater intelligence, at a price the average consumer could afford. An easy-to-use system that would, quite simply, give viewers control over their television programming and their time. This idea was the genesis of TiVo.

Transforming the idea into reality

Mike and Jim quickly assembled a world-class team to deliver on the promise of TiVo–blending the best of Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and Silicon Valley together to create the world’s first personal television service and bring TiVo to the masses.

In January 1999, the company unveiled it’s Personal Television Service at the National Consumers Electronics Show. And since that time, we’ve worked diligently to deliver better television to viewers, teaming up with the leaders of the industry to change the way we all can enjoy and interact with TV.

Blue moon

After unveiling the first working prototype of TiVo at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 1999–and despite an estimated four to five months of work remaining to complete a real working product–TiVo’s co-founder Mike Ramsay challenged the company to ship a perfect TiVo digital video recorder (the first DVR on the planet!) by March 31, 1999.

After everyone gasped, someone pointed out that March included a “blue moon”–in this case, the second full moon in a month, and of course, metaphorically speaking, “a rare event.” As such, the engineers decided to code-name this valiant effort “Blue Moon.”

“Everyone worked almost straight through without a break the entire month of March,” says Bob Poniatowski, a TiVo employee since Day One. “Our engineers spent many nights working and sleeping at TiVo. One of the hall closets was designated for blankets and pillows.”

Sure enough, just as the last week of March rolled around, so did the first TiVo box, right off the assembly line. Mike declared March 31st a “national” holiday and the last Friday in March to be the official “Blue Moon” holiday for all TiVo employees henceforth. The rest, as they say, is TV your way–and history worth repeating over and over again.

Milestones

Aug 1997  Company founded as Teleworld Inc.

June 1998  TiVo Logo is created

Jan 1999  Introduced at CES

Mar 1999 First TiVo DVR is shipped

Sep 1999 Traded publicly on the NASDAQ (Ticker: TIVO)

Dec 2001 First TiVo Series2 DVR is shipped

July 2006 TiVo service wins a Primetime Emmy award

Sep 2006 First TiVo Series3 HD DVR shipped

Jan 2008 First Comcast DVR with TiVo service shipped

Mar 2010 First TiVo Series4 DVR shipped