The future of television

[OLD BOY]

Another sign of the times.

https://www.advanced-television.com/...ts-dvr-market/

Goodbye, TiVo, old friend.

[EXTRACT]

TiVo Corporation is quitting its consumer Digital Video Recorder (DVR) market. At its peak there were millions of TiVo recorders in the market with users praising its time-shifting technology. Launched in 1999 the technology was capable of skipping ads and pausing live transmissions, technology which is now commonplace but at the time was revolutionary.

More recent devices have been available with 4K storage capability. However, streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and their competitors make pausing, rewinding and other functionality commonplace.

I had a Tivo back in the early 2000's, but they stopped doing them.
I think the subscriptions carried on for a few years, but by then we had a Sky box so stopped paying for it.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Another sign of the times.

https://www.advanced-television.com/...ts-dvr-market/

Goodbye, TiVo, old friend.

[EXTRACT]

TiVo Corporation is quitting its consumer Digital Video Recorder (DVR) market. At its peak there were millions of TiVo recorders in the market with users praising its time-shifting technology. Launched in 1999 the technology was capable of skipping ads and pausing live transmissions, technology which is now commonplace but at the time was revolutionary.

More recent devices have been available with 4K storage capability. However, streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and their competitors make pausing, rewinding and other functionality commonplace.

Don't worry OB, this is this answer at a cost of £0 per month.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...v-service.html

It will kill Sky and VMs ambitions to prevent the riff raff from fast forwarding through ads.

Recording is the future (for the less brain washed)
.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Don't worry OB, this is this answer at a cost of £0 per month.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...v-service.html

It will kill Sky and VMs ambitions to prevent the riff raff from fast forwarding through ads.

Recording is the future (for the less brain washed)
.

I'll be buying this once Virgin & Sky stop doing boxes that can record. I wonder if it can record IPTV?

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Another sign of the times.

https://www.advanced-television.com/...ts-dvr-market/

Goodbye, TiVo, old friend.

[EXTRACT]

TiVo Corporation is quitting its consumer Digital Video Recorder (DVR) market. At its peak there were millions of TiVo recorders in the market with users praising its time-shifting technology. Launched in 1999 the technology was capable of skipping ads and pausing live transmissions, technology which is now commonplace but at the time was revolutionary.

More recent devices have been available with 4K storage capability. However, streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and their competitors make pausing, rewinding and other functionality commonplace.

News to me, thanks OB.

Tivo has a massive presence now in the "smart" tv market, so I wonder if it's just the case of concentrating on that, or whether they plan to literally shut everything down??

[Hom3r]

Come March 26, I will cancel my VM TV, keeping the BB and phone (if its cheaper)


Prime & Netflix will keep me happy

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Come March 26, I will cancel my VM TV, keeping the BB and phone (if its cheaper)


Prime & Netflix will keep me happy

It's what a lot of people are doing now. What do Virgin do in response? Treat customers with contempt and impose inflation busting price increases.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

It's what a lot of people are doing now. What do Virgin do in response? Treat customers with contempt and impose inflation busting price increases.

My bill came down last time and they threw the cinema channels in free of charge. I am bemused to keep reading reports on here of Virgin’s ‘rip off’ policies and ‘poor customer services’. Sky is more expensive and frankly they have their fair share of problems. Every company has its good and bad points, but Virgin has been good to me over the years. The only bad time I’ve been concerned about with cable TV was ComTel, I was glad to see the back of them.

If you really want to save money with Virgin, get Virgin Flex. You can get it for peanuts and for a bit extra, you can access Sky and of course the popular streamers of your choice.

If you are happy to break with linear TV altogether (it’s coming sooner or later anyway), just pay for an Apple or Amazon Fire stick or similar and just pay for the streamers of your choice.

[OLD BOY]

https://rxtvinfo.com/2025/upbeat-arq...eviews-future/

[EXTRACT]

Broadcast infrastructure company Arqiva has posted an upbeat assessment of its TV business, which includes the operation of two national multiplexes delivering over 30 live Freeview TV channels to UK homes.

In what could be Freeview’s last decade before the UK moves to an all-streaming environment, Arqiva’s latest financial report confirmed it has renewed distribution contracts with a number of broadcasters, keeping services on Freeview into the 2030s.

Earlier this year, technical upgrades to one of Arqiva’s multiplexes increased its channel-carrying capacity. This has enabled the return of children’s channel Pop – previously available only via streaming on Freeview – and the launch of Hobbycraft TV. By summer 2025, Arqiva reported 97% utilisation of its Freeview capacity.

It appears that linear TV is fairly secure until 2035. Arquiva is happy with the extra channels it is providing, but actually the number of channels is less important than the content on those channels and how many viewers them.

I was looking through the Freeview channels the other day. I doubt many watch most of them.

The government expects to make a decision on the future of Freeview early next year.

What you believe or doubt vis a vis viewing figures is neither here nor there. For starters, the figures are actually available - BARB collects them. And then, as others have said, over and over, these channels don’t need large viewer numbers to be viable. They’re broadcasting repeats over mature infrastructure from largely automated play-out suites. The cost of providing one of these channels is comfortably less than the revenue from the syndicated advert packages they run, or else they wouldn’t be doing it.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Chris

What you believe or doubt vis a vis viewing figures is neither here nor there. For starters, the figures are actually available - BARB collects them. And then, as others have said, over and over, these channels don’t need large viewer numbers to be viable. They’re broadcasting repeats over mature infrastructure from largely automated play-out suites. The cost of providing one of these channels is comfortably less than the revenue from the syndicated advert packages they run, or else they wouldn’t be doing it.

I know, Chris, but what will the situation be in 10 years’ time? Streaming has boomed during the last 10 years. channels have been closing, and that includes Sky channels, a process that is continuing as less and less original material is available.

So, it’s not only a question of the cost of programming being cheaper as there are more and more repeats, but it is also a question of audience figures and where the advertisers will go to follow the more intelligent audiences. No-one with half a brain is going to subject themselves to endless repeats of repeats, are they? Either they won’t bother watching anything vaguely stimulating more or they will succumb to the streamers.

If the government decides in the New Year to extend its support to these broadcast channels and Freeview beyond 2025, I think they will live to regret it (if indeed they are still in power by then).

https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2025...f-10m-viewers/

Ask yourself why a channel like Pop, for example, would be taking the opportunity to get back in the EPG. Now, just the same as when our kids were young (15-odd years ago now), parents are happy to have a channel like that on in the living room, just playing out from show to show while the kids half-watch it while playing of whatever. The strength of a linear schedule is the same as it ever was - there is zero friction from a consumer point of view. It’s just there when you want it.