Forrester research on GMST:
(Personal video recorder venders emerge as guide contenders??? Networks back them, create a diminishing of GMST power??? Comments? -SL)
Here are some the excerpts taken from Yahoo thread:
(courtesy piyush on G&K thread))
Gemstar/TV Guide: Birth Of A Media Powerhouse
October 5, 1999
by Josh Bernoff, Joseph L. Butt, Jr.
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Gemstar agreed to buy TV Guide International from News Corp. and Liberty
Media for $7.7 billion. The new company will supply an electronic program
guide (EPG) to one-fourth of US homes by 2004, creating a media property
with unparalleled reach.
============================================================================
Gemstar, with 2 million guides going into TVs and VCRs this year, is the only significant supplier of
EPGs to the consumer electronics industry. TV Guide provides listings to 2 million digital cable boxes
and will dominate cable guide sales. With interactive EPGs reaching 55 million Americans four to 10
times daily by 2004, ad-supported guides will emerge as a massive new media opportunity. Gemstar/TV
Guide will become the first media powerhouse of the interactive TV era.
* Personal video recorder (PVR) vendors emerge as the guide contenders. PVR vendors TiVo and Replay
will generate much of the new growth in EPG sales. The big networks, investors in both, will back them
to create competition in the EPG market and diminish Gemstar's power. Gemstar's litigious CEO, Henry
Yuen, will sue Replay for patent infringement over its grid-based recording technology. The distraction
will allow TiVo to extend its lead in the new field.
* Satellite operators must band together. Bitter satellite rivals Echostar and
DirecTV, taken together, will control one-fourth of EPGs. While they currently
supply EPGs free of ads as a satellite selling point, the rise of cable EPGs will
force them to consider ad sales to reduce subscriber costs. Their most effective
competitive strategy against the new giant Gemstar/TV Guide will be to create a
joint guide venture with a combined ad sales force.
* Portals beware. The Gemstar/TV Guide merger will accelerate the rise of
ad-supported EPGs. As EPGs add interactivity, their massive reach will siphon
drive-by ads from portals like Yahoo! and Lycos. Look for network-backed portals
like Snap and Infoseek to add EPGs heavy on interactivity, exploiting cross-media
sales opportunities as they search for a toehold on cable set-top boxes.
Interesting that they are suing Replay and not TIVO. |
