The nearly decade long battle TiVo has fought with Echostar and other TV providers looks to be drawing to a close. Previously DISH/ Echostar had agreed to pay TiVo $500 million (in addition to $100 million received earlier) to settle that litigation. and today AT&T agreed to pay TiVo $215 million or more (if AT&T expands their reach). Presumably a settlement with Verizon along the same lines should follow shortly, meaning that one patent will end up being worth about a cool billion dollars. We’ve been down this road before Here’s the money line:
Under the Agreement, AT&T has agreed to pay TiVo a minimum amount of $215,000,000 (the “Payment to TiVo”) plus incremental monthly fees per DVR subscriber if the growth of AT&T’s subscriber base exceeds certain pre-determined levels. Based on currently available industry forecasts, TiVo expects that the total fees payable to it by AT&T under the Agreement will significantly exceed the guaranteed minimum Payment to TiVo. The first $51,000,000 of the Payment to TiVo is due on January 3, 2012 and the remaining amount is due to TiVo in equal installments 30 days after the end of each calendar quarter in the amount of $5 million for the first four calendar quarters and approximately $6.5 million in subsequent calendar quarters through the calendar quarter ending June 30, 2018. Any incremental additional per subscriber fees are due to TiVo on the same schedule.
The news today, from May & of course the notorious TiVo Deathwatch.