Wouldn’t you know it. Tivo is now offering the Home Media Option for free or as they put it, “as part of their standard monthly fee of $12.95.” I just spent $100 on this “upgrade” for my two Tivos. Great news if you don’t have the HMO feature yet, bad news if you do.

In related news, Tivo has reduced the price for additional Tivo receivers to $6.95 per month for receivers 2 - 5. Strangely, I did not receive the discount this month. Guess I will need to place a call to customer service about the reduced fee and a rebate for the HMO option.

In sum, this is great news. It acts to blunt the effect of ReplayTV’s free features in this area and definitely affects ReplayTV’s ability to compete on price.