Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?

Mon Jan 15 14:31:59 UTC 2007

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