Someone Has to Pay for TV. But Who? And How?

SOMEONE HAS TO PAY FOR TV. BUT WHO? AND HOW?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Randall Stross]
[Commentary] The digital video recorder is slowly, but surely, tunneling through the television industry's foundation. Ten million homes had DVR's in 2005, according to Forrester Research; the number is expected to jump to 15 million this year, 30 million next year and 42 million in 2010. Scientific-Atlanta, which supplies set-top boxes to all the major cable companies, reports that fully half its boxes going out today are equipped with DVR's. What this means for traditional advertising can be divined in data collected by TiVo, which has 4.4 million subscribers. Davina Kent, a TiVo vice president, said that when its customers watch recorded programs, they skip 70 percent of the commercials. This has not escaped the notice of advertisers. Josh Bernoff, a principal analyst at Forrester, predicted that "next year, you'll see significant decline in TV ad spending as a result of digital video recorders." The television industry has not figured out how best to respond.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/business/yourmoney/07digi.html
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