TiVo: Quick History

In the late 90s, Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton started toying around with the idea of TiVo when they were working together on a project for Time-Warner and SGI. They were hired to design the first interactive television system. This project helped them realize they could make the same type system but at a price everyone could afford, giving the consumer control over the television programming. Thus, the TiVo dream was born.

The Prototype After assembling a team, Ramsay and Barton unveiled the first TiVo prototype in January 1999 at the National Consumers Electronics Show. Despite months of work still needed to complete a working product, Mike challenged the company to ship the first DVR by March 1999.

First Shipment Everyone thought the challenge would be impossible to win. An employee even pointed out that March included a Blue Moon in reference to the old saying, “once in a blue moon,” which means a rare event.  Because of this, the team code-named the project "Blue Moon."  After long days and nights put in by the engineers, the first TiVo box shipped out the last week of March. Ramsay made March 31st a Blue Moon holiday for TiVo employees.

Since the shipment of the first TiVo product, the company has seen many milestones. In September 1999, TiVo became a public trade option on the NASDAQ. The TiVo Series2 DVR shipped in December 2001. Almost five years later, TiVo won an Emmy for primetime service. Since then, TiVo has created a Series3 HD DVR and a Comcast DVR with TiVo services.

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History of TiVo