The Death of Television Draws Ever Nearer

[gonzo]

The Supreme Court just effectively doubled the number of Americans who have access to ad-skipping DVR technology. TV is in trouble. Today the Court declined to hear an appeal from a coalition of television networks in Cable News Network v. CSC Holdings. The decision means that Cablevision will be allowed to deploy remote-DVR technology, letting customers who don't have DVRs record programs and pause live TV using Cablevision's centralized servers. An appeals court ruled last year that Cablevision's scheme didn't amount to copyright infringement—it was no different than a viewer using a VCR, the appeals court ruled, it's just that the VCR is digital and housed on a server somewhere maintained by the cable company—and the Supreme Court's decision not to take the case means the growing minority of TV watchers who haven't seen a commercial in years is about to get much larger:

Industry experts say the new technology could put digital recording service in nearly half of all American homes, about twice the current number. That's what has movie studios, TV networks and cable channels worried. DVRs allow viewers easily to skip past commercials.

DVRs have heretofore been relatively high-end toys for wealthy viewers. Depending on the pricing mechanisms that Cablevision and other companies deploying remote DVRs intend to use, they could go mass-market very quickly.


http://gawker.com/5303801/the-death-...ws-ever-nearer


I think theres some information there that could be applied to this biz.

[RawAlex]

Interestingly, I don't get what everyone is so excited about. Hard drives are cheap as chips. Heck, BellTV (sat company) up here activated the USB port on my regular HD receiver,I plugged in a hard drive, and boom, DVR.

I think all the surpreme court did was put this one on hold - let the technology play a bit, and wait until the broadcasters come back with a much more solid list of complaints to work from.

Oh yeah, as for TV, yes, it is dying pretty quick these days, prime time is the latest victim. NBC has dumped 10PM for Leno, Fox never did 10 PM, and CBS is looking to replace 10PM with a sort of super national news / interview thing, maybe as soon as January.

The real victims? 10PM drama shows, the things that have turned into the staples of all the cable channels that run repeats (tnt, spike, etc). They are going to find themselves up the creek with very little new programming soon.

[gonzo]

My point was how we all used to do it... isnt good enough anymore.

[Toby]

Just another step in the total integration of telephone, Internet, television, music, movies, etc. The advertising isn't going to go away, but the delivery methods are going to force it to take different forms.