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To: JEFF K who wrote (39552)	3/30/1999 7:40:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Philips/TiVo kick-off tomorrow............................ e-town.com PHILIPS, TIVO KICK OFF PVR REVOLUTION 100-hour record time. Zapped commercials. TV paradise... by David J. Elrich CAMBRIDGE, MA, March 29, 1999 -- On Wednesday, Philips and TiVo will fire the first shot in a revolution that will see TV viewing habits undergo a radical change. By being first to offer a personal video recorder (PVR), the two are hoping to gain a solid advantage over Replay TV, WebTV and others who will introduce such products later this year What radical change are PVRs bound to have on TV viewing? Within a few years, these "uberVCRs" will be able to record up to 100 hours of programming. Just as important, viewers will be able to skip over the ads. As a result, TV ad viewing will be cut nearly in half. So says a recent Forrester Research report that envisions an era of ubiquitous pay TV as broadcast, cable and satellite as networks scramble to replace dwindling ad dollars. Welcome to the 21st century! Philips, TiVo sprint ahead of pack Philips and TiVo will kick off a strategic rollout of the Philips Personal TV System (composed of Philips receivers and access to TiVo's service) this Wednesday. The firms say subscribers will have access to content from Showtime, HBO, DirecTV, E!Entertainment Television, FLIX, style., The Weather Channel, The Movie Channel, ZDTV and other providers. Subscribers will also receive program recommendations and entertainment and sports editorial content. Philips Personal TV receivers are available in two configurations: a 14-hour model for $499 and a 30-hour model for $999. Purchasers have a choice of three subscription payment rates: $9.95 each month, $99 per year or $199 for a lifetime subscription. What's so great about PVRs? Asked by E/Town to elaborate on the potential impact of PVRs on TV culture, Forrester principal television analyst Josh Bernoff noted: "The two main features that drive TV sales are choice and convenience. First there was the convenience of the remote control, and then the choices offered by cable and satellite networks. The PVR puts you right the middle of the two so you can watch whatever you want whenever you want." But can they really cut TV ad viewing in half? "We did some pretty conservative forecasts," said Bernoff. "We found that people with more choices tend to watch premium stations like HBO and pay-per-view movies. They are less likely to watch network TV or ad-supported channels on cable. In a situation where you can watch anything that was on for the last week, shows like Will and Grace won't look so good. And we expect people to zap past the ads." The Forrester team interviewed Replay PVR beta users and discovered most didn't look at ads anymore. "With Replay and other PVRs, you can skip ahead 30 seconds very easily. People can start watching prime time shows at 9 and see three hours of shows in two hours just by skipping the ads." Defining the PVR Personal video recorders use an intelligent interface and an internal hard drive to digitally record programs. With features like instantaneous fast-forward and reverse, the ability to pause live broadcasts and easy-to-create viewer profiles, PVRs will broaden viewer options by offering, at any given moment, a menu of recorded programs based on your preferences. "Success will not be based on video quality or hard drive size, but which service delivers the most intuitive viewpoint to the consumer," Bernoff said. In other words, the PVR that finds the shows you like the most, wins. According to Forrester, every major consumer electronics company has a PVR in the lab, while Replay TV and WebTV plan to release PVRs in the next 12 months. By 2001, interface improvements and bigger hard drives will produce sub-$500 PVRs that can store more than 24 hours of video. By 2004, they estimate 14 million Americans will be watching TV on PVR-enabled sets. Ten years from now, PVRs will be in four out of five U.S. homes, making PVRs one of the fastest-growing consumer electronics categories in history. Please feel free to post your comments in Your Two Cents, a folder on our Message Board. # # # This story is an E/Town original.