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Are you in control of your video?

Rupert Goodwins AnchorDesk

Published: 24 May 2002 16:34 BST

On Wednesday night, acting on commands transmitted from a giant organisation, thousands of household robots awoke across the UK and began a secret mission. It took a while before their owners realised what was happening. By then, it was too late. What was done could not be undone -- the robots just ignored instructions, obeying a higher power. Science fiction? Not a bit of it. It was the work of a far more mysterious and frightening force than anything from George Lucas: the BBC's marketing department. And they couldn't have done it without TiVo.

TiVo is the first of a new breed of digital home devices, the rather fuzzily named personal video recorders or PVRs. Like an ordinary VCR they have a TV tuner or can plug into a set-top box; unlike VCRs they record everything onto an internal hard disk. This is incredibly flexible -- you can pause live TV, watch the beginning of a programme before you've finished recording it, and effectively reschedule entire evenings of viewing. And, as TiVo owners now realise, you can even record things you had no intention of watching: in this case, the second episode of a drama called Dossa and Joe.

The BBC paid TiVo, and TiVo sent out the command to all its boxes -- which collect programming information by modem -- to record the programme. Which they dutifully did, to the surprise of all the viewers and the considerable annoyance of many: furthermore, the recording can't easily be deleted and insists on sitting on the main menu until TiVo decides to remove it -- around seven days, the company says.

Like so many technology companies, TiVo is still struggling to prove that its big idea can be profitable. Personal video recorders are undoubtedly a good idea, and one that you can't easily give up once you've tried it. But there's not enough margin on the hardware to keep the business going, and the tenner a month subscription for the programme guide won't cut the mustard with the current level of take-up. Indeed, the company has raised the subscription fee in the US -- but with most target households in the UK paying hundreds of pounds in licence fees and digital subscription, there are limits to that. And there's competition now -- Sky Plus is already out there, and the next generation of cable TV set-top boxes have hard disk recording. New revenue sources are most welcome.