The PVR Revolution Is Real

When they burst on the scene three years ago, digital video recorders, also known as personal video recorders (PVRs), were a novelty that many said could not last. But now that TiVo has far exceeded market expectations and is aproaching cash-flow positive performance (TiVo Exceeds Estimates as Loss Narrows), there's good reason to believe that a fundamental shift is occuring in entertainment. Just as iTunes and MP3 players have changed audio from an album-based business to a playlist-based business, so too has TiVo made it possible to watch only the shows one wants when one wants to watch them. There's no such thing in a PVR world as "tuning in" to a particular show, as everything you want is on the hard disk. Advertisers say they don't like it, but I think that, like VCRs, this technology will increase viewership by making the broadcast schedule irrelevant. If you watch more shows because you don't need to be tied to the clock, you will inevitably watch more commercials, too.

 Posted by glenn