DIRECTV TiVo Terms and Conditions

Information about the agreement that you must sign to get new DIRECTV hardware

People often ask why we require a signed contract before we can ship DIRECTV hardware. This page explains the situation in more detail.

The contract is actually very short, and covers two main issues: Ensuring that you will activate the access card that we send to you, and obtaining your understanding that DIRECTV will require you to remain a DIRECTV customer at least for two more years.

The reason we require the agreement is quite simple. DIRECTV heavily subsidizes certain DIRECTV-specific hardware and they therefore lose money on every sale. By subsidizing hardware, DIRECTV assumes that their customers would rather pay slightly higher monthly fees than have to make a huge upfront investment in DIRECTV hardware. In exchange for this subsidy, DIRECTV requires its hardware buyers to remain customers for at least two years, which enables DIRECTV to recoup this subsidy.

If a customer fails to activate the hardware within a certain period of time and keep it activated for two years, DIRECTV will attempt to recover their subsidy. A signed agreement makes the collection process much easier.

Although DIRECTV's means for selling hardware is somewhat unique, it is the same method that other companies (such as cell phone providers) use to sell equipment. As with DIRECTV, cell-phone companies often give free cell phones with one-year service agreements. And the exact same logic applies.

If you are an existing DIRECTV customer, this contract does not commit you to other programming or packages. It does not state that you will be charged your monthly fee twice. If you are adding a receiver to your account (rather than replacing a receiver already in use) DIRECTV may charge an additional $4.99/month for that receiver. Also, if you are adding your first DirecTiVo to the account, they may charge you up to $5.99/month for the DVR service (this is waived with some programming packages).

If you have more questions, please re-read the contract. It is online here. If you need more info, please email us.

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*DirecTV DVRs and Series3 TiVos (in HD) record digital broadcast streams and all compression is determined by the broadcaster, so hours stated are estimates assuming average compression. Standard Definition TiVo DVR and TiVo Upgrade Kit capacities are stated at Basic Quality. All capacities may vary due to hard drive models used. Capacities are guaranteed to be within 5% larger or smaller of stated size. Email with any questions.