Group 4: Gerard Coughlin, Rizwan Hassanaly, Sarah Kucheran, Thu Nguyen, Dean Zanutig

Project Title: Pause, Rewind, Replay
Group Name: The Recorders

Gerard Coughlin, Rizwan Hassanaly, Sarah Kucheran, Thu Nguyen, Dean Zanutig

Project Statement


Our group aim to assess the Pro's and Con's of TiVo and how this technology is affecting society.

Introduction
Since becoming available commercially late in the 1930s, television has had a profound impact on our everyday lives. Ideas were transmitted, humor was relayed and news was dispatched. Perhaps most importantly though, people came closer as a result of television, due largely to the limited number of shows broadcast in television’s early years. However, television has also been universally panned as causing a decrease in exercise and an increase in weight gain. As television as a media form grew, the number of programs that were broadcast also grew. For example, more than 25 shows premiered in September of 2007 in the United States. That number for all of 1947 was around 15. With such a high number of television shows to choose from, how does one manage to keep up with their favorite shows? During the days of the VCR, this issue would be solved by having someone else record the show for you on a video cassette. Today, that same issue is solved in a much more convenient way. The invention of the TiVo has revolutionized the way we watch TV by allowing us to record our favorites by simply setting our DVR, or Digital Video Recorder, to record the specified show. Yet, one not need to be in the same room or even the same house as the TiVo unit. With applications that allow one to set their TiVo from a remote location, such as from their iPhone, recording your favorite shows is easier than ever. Service is currently available in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, Taiwan and, just recently, Canada. Furthermore, it is set to be released in New Zealand by the end of 2009. As is it is definitely a powerful tool, but TiVo is also allying with movie rental giant Blockbuster, Blackberry creator Research in Motion and is now trying to better target the cable television market. Obviously such a device is quite the luxury, and at around 200 Canadian dollars, plus monthly payments for service, it is not a cheap one, but does TiVo have cons? How could such a device make our lives easier yet prove to be detrimental to us? In other words, does flicking on your TiVo cause you to flick off reality, health and social bonding? These questions will be addressed, but first one must understand the history and power of TiVo.

What is TiVo?


Tivo is a digital video recording (DVR) system which allows users to view their TV according to convenience and individual interests as quickly and as easily as possible. This recording device allows subscribers to watch their favourite TV episodes with the click of just one button. Viewers can pause live television, rewind, and replay up to a half an hour of recently viewed TV. These high-tech devices provide the most recent TV schedule and will automatically record episodes of your choice. Tivo offers various features to suit every individual’s needs, such as Season Pass, which gives viewers the option of watching the entire season of any desired show. WishList searches, which is another function of Tivo, allows the user to find a show that matches their interests by title, actor, director, category, or keyword. Some other elements that this unique DVR system provides includes movie and TV show downloads, advanced search, personal photo viewing, music offerings, online scheduling, as well as various other programs.

The History of TiVo
TiVo was started by 2 members named, Micheal Ramsey and Jim Barton. Their initial thought was to create a home device for networking, however it turned into the idea for a digital video recorder and when the show was being taped the show would be stored on a hard drive. Since the concept was well designed they got venue and capital very easily. When the company first started it was called Teleworld. The first instrument was designed to digitalize and compress analog video into any source. The second device was combined with the TiVo function and Direct TV; the signals from the satellite TV were stored on a hard disk. The name was later changed to TiVo which is offered as a product and service. In January 1999, the company unveiled it's Personal Television Service at the National Consumers Electronics Show. It also became an International Public Offering (IPO) on September 30, 1999. They made their first profit in the year 2005. The name TiVo is a combination of the word TV and the word video. This type of service is great because you don’t have to worry about tapes running out or breaking in the middle of a show. You can also tape two weeks ahead of time which is great for the busy family who is constantly on the run

Pros:
-Never miss anything: The TiVo service finds and records all your favorite shows, every time they're on, so you can watch them at your convenience. Whenever you turn on the TV, something good is on!

-Catch every episode: The TiVo service gives you ultimate control over your TV viewing by keeping track of the latest TV schedule and automatically recording every episode of your favorite shows, even if the day or time they air changes. All you do is find the show you want by searching or browsing the TV listings, and then specify whether you want to record an individual episode, or get all episodes of a show (with or without repeats!). We call this a Season Pass™.

-Avoid conflicts: No more choosing between shows airing at the same time! TiVo DVRs have two tuners, so they can record two different TV shows at the same time.

-Multi-room viewing: Having two or more TiVo DVRs connected to your home network gives you two or more times the viewing freedom. Record a show on one TiVo DVR and watch it on another in the house. Start a movie in the living room and finish it in the bedroom!

-Parental Features: TiVo KidZone is designed to give parents greater control over what their children see on TV. This feature allows parents to choose which shows their children can watch and record. It also helps kids discover new shows through recommendations from leading national children's organizations. TiVo KidZone provides a customized Now Playing List for children that displays only pre-approved shows, keeping TV as safe as possible.

-Convenience: Now, you have total control of your entertainment. With TiVo, people will no longer have to schedule plans around a favorite TV program. Instead, they can set TiVo to record that particular program for later viewing and can be watched over and over again. With TiVo, you can select your favorite programs to record either by time, specific program title, as well as by genre, actors, directors and many others. The TiVo memory is massive allowing you to accommodate all your preferred programs which remain for viewing until you manually delete it.

-Excellent User Interface: The TiVo interface is easier to use in many ways compared to a VCR. Even technophobes can easily get the hang of TiVo and will soon consider TiVo as a best friend. One great feature that TiVo has is the thumbs up/thumbs down button which is basically a user rating system that allow viewers to score television shows. Users can rate TV shows in a scale ranging from three thumbs ups to three thumbs downs. These ratings are then used to determine the user’s preferences to suggest some shows and programs that are similar to the user’s interests.

-Great Features: Aside from the great convenience and ease-of-use, TiVo offers a host of other exciting features TV addicts will love. Season Passes allow TiVo to record a show each time it is aired regardless of when the show begins. TiVo also feature Wish List searches and online scheduling which have made the TiVo a household necessity. All theses plus TiVo’s various home entertainment innovations make people wonder how they went for so long without this exceptional piece of home entertainment.

Cons:
-Privacy Concerns: Some users are concerned that TiVo’s capability to collect usage data may intrude into the privacy of its subscribers. However, TiVo assures its consumers that no information about individual viewing habits are being collected.

-Ads: TiVo began including pop-up advertisements to explore it as an alternative source of income. Apparently, as the user fast-forwards through certain commercials, instead of seeing a blur of broken video stream, they will see a static image. This drew negative response from its subscribers who have previously enjoyed TiVo’s ad free viewing experience.

-Health and Social Effects: With the massive amount of viewing freedom, it is likely that people will tend to spend more time watching television. Countless studies have linked television to numerous issues such as obesity, lower grades and inept social skills.

Statistics


-It has been estimated that an average individual is exposed to over 245 advertisements per day, and approximately 108 directly from television.

-More than 30 percent of households now own digital video recorders, allowing them to time-shift their viewing and potentially fast-forward past advertisements. The study found that the average American watches almost 15 minutes of TV using a DVR each day.

-As of October 2008, TiVo has 3.46 million subscribers in the US, down from a peak of 4.36 million in January 2006.

-According to The Carmel Group, which expects that number to surpass 52 million or 46 percent of U.S. TV households by the end of 2010.

-Tracking the eye movements of viewers, Carroll School of Management Professors S. Adam Brasel and James Gips found that ads with brand information placed in the center of the screen still create brand memory despite a 95% reduction in frames viewed and complete loss of audio.

-About 60 percent of advertisers said they plan to decrease their budget for conventional commercial spots as DVRs increasingly become standard accessories in households, according to preliminary research findings released in March by the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research.

-"Almost 70 percent of advertisers think that DVRs and video-on-demand will reduce or destroy effectiveness of traditional 30-second commercials," the report said.

-Canadian advertisers currently spend about $2.6-billion a year on television commercials.

Conclusion
TiVo and the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) are on their way to becoming a standard within the North American household. Although the DVR is here to stay, it does not necessarily mean that TiVo will be here in the future. TiVo must prove itself as better and more efficient then competitors that are being released at lower prices, and are even included with many digital cable services. Similar to VCR cassettes and Blue-Ray, TiVo has had to compete with several other forms of DVRs, and following other previous media revolutions TiVo has partnered with several major television, movie, and rental companies. All in hopes to ensure TiVo's survival and dominance in the DVR market. TiVo's slumping sales preceded our economic downturn, and at $200+ box with an additional $8.95-$12.95 per month, TiVo seems less and less enticing to the consumer. TiVo must also survive the creation of imitators and competitors, offered for costs much lower, including free software and streaming video that is now widely available online. TiVo has aligned itself with major corporations like Direct TV and Blockbuster, but that does not guarantee its survival. While TiVo has the potential to become the next VCR, something in nearly ever home, it also has the potential to be the footnote and the pioneer of a technology it revolutionized, but failed to stay competitive in.