[LINK] Will Google?s Deal with TiVo Push More Video to the Web?

[Stilgherrian]

On 26/11/2009, at 12:36 PM, Scott Howard wrote:
> Many US cable/satellite providers are now providing boxes which do  
> pretty
> much what the Tivo does. Although these generally don't have quite  
> the same
> "intelligence" as the Tivo, they are normally cheaper per month and  
> without
> the up-front/purchase charges like the Tivo has.  With Tivo's  
> stagnation in
> feature set over the past few years even these cable/satellite-company
> provided boxes are now often providing equal or greater  
> functionality than
> Tivo.

Plus personal video recorders (PVRs) are now an established product  
category in their own right. A box with dual HD TV tuners and 1TB of  
storage is now around $500. Cheaper options are available. They  
sometimes get bundled with the more expensive plasma TVs.

Plus as of a few days ago Sony's PlayStation 3 got an extra "TV"  
software button for accessing (initially) ABC TV's iView streams. Plus  
today Sony are selling the PlayTV, a $169 add-on box for the  
PlayStation 3 which has dual HD TV tuners and turns it into a PVR. Or,  
if you want to buy the new PS3 250GB model for $599 rrp they'll throw  
in the PlayTV for free. The PS3 can already access YouTube, and  
YouTube will have HD video soon.

At the launch on Tuesday, Sony Computer Entertainment's MD in  
Australia said there's already 675,000 PS3s in Australian homes, 20%  
of them sold in the last three months. They're hoping to sell 100,000  
PlayTVs for Christmas.

TiVo as a box that can ONLY do TV, or Foxtel's iQ as a box that can  
ONLY do TV... doomed.

Yes, general-purpose computers with TV tuners added can do all these  
things and, you know, be a computer. But why bother with the hassle if  
you're in the majority of the population who aren't geeks?

Bonus link: some numbers and analysis of the business of online video  
compared with broadcast TV.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/online-video-television-ninemsn-Ten-Network-Fairfa-pd20091124-Y4ARL?OpenDocument&src=amm
or
http://is.gd/53M9C

Stil


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