PVR expected to take hold as new models on horizon, more distributors offer device

With more broadcast distributors looking to roll out digital set-top boxes with personal video recorder (PVR) capability and new models on the way, Ian MacLean, VP of Montreal-based Media Experts iTV Lab, is predicting that 50% of Canadian TV households will have a PVR by 2007 or 2008. But MacLean says the broadcast industry shouldn’t fear consumers using the PVR to skip through commercials (CCR, April 25/02). His research reveals that PVRs will enable advertisers to better reach the high-end consumer that they covet. “These people are seeing a show that they would not have seen if they had not recorded it on the PVR, so that’s incremental viewing,” MacLean tells Canadian Communications Reports. “So even if you skip half of the ads in a time-shifted mode, you’re seeing the other half. It’s more viewing. And who’s doing that viewing? The most desirable audience that advertisers want – busy professionals with kids, with higher income and more disposable income. Right now, 50% of all TV tuning is done by the 80% of the population that nobody wants to talk to – the unemployed, the lower income brackets, the less educated. If I’m trying to sell a $70,000 car to someone, I know that a great deal of my market isn’t there.” So far, only satellite TV operator Bell ExpressVu LP and cableco Vidéotron ltée are offering PVR-capable digital boxes to their subscribers, but other distributors have indicated that they plan to introduce them soon. As well, Thomson RCA has been selling a stand-alone DVD/PVR combo box in Canada since last September. Bell ExpressVu has rolled out an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 PVR satellite receivers since it introduced the first PVR model available in Canada in August 2001. Vidéotron sold about 700 PVR-capable digital boxes in a 15-day period before Christmas when it initially launched the product, according to sources. Even with these relatively low numbers, MacLean says the take-up rate for the PVR isn’t too bad for a new technology. “We have been looking at this space now for three years. People often ask how is it that PVRs are so compelling in terms of their technology and providing people with what they want, when they want…why are they not selling faster? There are a couple of answers,” MacLean says. “The first is that if you look at the integration of new technologies, starting with the colour TV in 1954 and going right up to the PVR, only two consumer electronic devices have had a faster take-up rate than the PVR – and they are the DVD, which is the all-time runaway best seller, and direct-to-home satellite. The PVR sold a million units in its first three years (in the United States). It’s only been in Canada a year and a half.” He notes that the PVR has advantages over video-on-demand. “The PVR removes time from the equation. With video-on-demand, you can have instant gratification but there is a limited amount of content. The beautiful thing about the PVR is that you have the ability to have video-on-demand or to time-shift anything on my program schedule.” Terry Snazel, VP of technology at Bell ExpressVu, states, “The take-up rate hasn’t been as quick perhaps as we’d have liked. But once people get it, they love it. And then they tell their friends.” MacLean notes that with competition soon on the way from distributors such as satellite TV operator Star Choice Communications Inc., Shaw Cablesystems and Rogers Cable Inc., word about what the PVR is and what it can do will spread quickly and prices will start to come down. In a May 29 address to the Vancouver Board of Trade, Shaw CEO Jim Shaw stated that the cableco would soon offer a network PVR system allowing consumers to choose their 10 favourite shows, which would be recorded and available for download and viewing at any time. Shaw stated that the cableco planned to introduce the PVR system in Calgary and Vancouver next year. As well, Star Choice plans to introduce the Motorola 530 dual-tuner PVR receiver in the first quarter of 2004 (CCR Update, April 2/03). Bell ExpressVu is moving ahead with plans for a fall launch of a dual-tuner PVR, according to Snazel. A dual-tuner PVR allows consumers to simultaneously record programming on two different channels while watching a third one off the hard drive. The first PVR that Bell ExpressVu rolled out was the Model 5100 that allowed up to 30 hours of programming to be recorded and stored on a 40-gigabyte hard drive (CCR, Aug. 15/01). Its second generation Model 5800 PVR, the model currently being deployed, enables up to 55 hours of recording on an 80-gigabyte hard drive. A Model 5800 satellite system currently sells for $599.95 before any programming credits. Along with the dual-tuner PVR, Bell ExpressVu has also announced future plans for an integrated high-definition television/PVR receiver (CCR, March 13/03). Vidéotron, the first cableco in Canada to deploy a PVR-capable digital box, rolled out the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 late last year, a dual-tuner PVR with 50 hours of storage capacity (CCR Update, Nov. 13/02). It is currently priced at $649 before any programming credits. As well, Thomson RCA plans to bring the RCA Scenium CRC7005N combination DVD/PVR to Canada this July. It offers audio, video and photo album capability and can store thousands of JPEG images and hold up to 1,000 mp3 audio files on the hard drive. The RCA Scenium DRS7000N, which is currently available in Canada, is priced at $899.99. There have been some complaints, however, that the electronic program guide on the Thomson RCA model cannot be accessed in Canada. Decima Publishing Inc., in conjunction with affiliate company Decima Research Inc., is currently conducting a comprehensive survey of 2,000 Canadian television subscribers on their interest in digital television services and features including PVR capabilities.

PVR expected to take hold as new models on horizon, more distributors offer device

News | 06/05/2003 4:00 am EDT

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