On 15-Jan-2007, at 08:48, Michal Krsek wrote:
This system works perfectly in our linear-line distribution
(channels). As user you can choose time you want to see the show,
but not the show itself. Capacity on PVR device is finite and if
you don't want to waste the space with any broadcasted content you
have to program the device. I have ten channels in my cable TV and
sometimes I'm confused what to record. Beeing in the US and paid
for ~100 channels will make me mad to crawl channel schedules :-)
So the technology is nice, but not a "What you want is what you
get". So you cannot address the long tail using this technology.
These are all UI details.
The (Scientific Atlanta, I think) PVRs that Rogers Cable gives
subscribers here in Ontario let you specify the *names* of shows that
you like, rather than selecting specific channels and times; I seem
to think you can also tell it to automatically ditch old recorded
material when disk space becomes low.
One thing that may not be obvious to people who haven't had this
misfortune of consuming it at first hand is that North American TV,
awash with channels as it is, contains a lot of duplicated content.
The same episode of the same show might be broadcast tens of times
per week; the same advertisement might be broadcast tens of times per
hour.
How much more programming would the existing networks support if they
were able to reduce those retransmissions, relying on the ubiquity of
set-top boxes with PVR functionality?
Joe
