Sky has gradually been increasing the number of ways to program your Sky+ and HD boxes to record. The latest, via the Internet, joins interactive via mobile phone and the rather convoluted mobile text message services.
In those situations where Sky subscribers find they haven’t set their boxes to record the latest episode of Celebrity Trouser Press, and can’t live without seeing it, relief will now be at hand.
By grabbing the closest (compatible) Web browser, Sky subscribers bring up the Sky site, login and take themselves to TV Listings. The next seven days of TV programming will be brought up, and, when Celebrity Trouser Press is found, by clicking on the title, the description of the programme and its options are brought up.
All that is needed to program the box is a click on Remote Record, and a subsequent confirmation to send the request to the box nestled under the TV at home.
Sky tell us that it can take up to 30 mins for the programming request to reach its destination, but it’s highly likely to be significantly quicker than that.
Strangely they have decided to impose a limit of 10 recording request a day via the Internet – but, in our view, anyone who need to remotely programme their box more than that needs help anyway. Those afflicted can reach for their mobile to carry on programming until their thumbs bleed.
Well that’s it. The remote programming circle is now complete. All ways to program your Sky+ box are now available … err, except the direct brain method. We await the call from Sky on that one.
TiVo has been shipping their PVRs with an Ethernet port since their series 2 model, promising content delivered over broadband.
TiVoToGo for the Macintosh
Orb MyCasting has been grabbed by Nokia to be bundled in with the Nokia N80 Internet Edition, in the US only.
Good news for UK Tech firm Pace Micro as it receives confirmation from number one US cable company, Comcast to ship combined Set Top Box (STB) and PVR.
Comcast is mighty, being the largest provider of cable services in the US, with 23.3 million cable customers, 10 million high-speed Internet customers and 1.6 million voice customers. Their business extends beyond simple cable TV provision, in their own words, they’re “focused on broadband cable, commerce, and content.”
We’ve all known for years that PVR’s have been eating TV advertising. Murdoch has been on top of this for ages too, which makes it all the more interesting to hear that his Fox network is using 2-second Blinks, adverts. 
Overall, Clear Channel Radio has experienced mixed results following Less Is More, though recent quarters have shown positive revenue increases. Clear Channel executives have credited those jumps to the shortened advertising slots, which address a major source of radio listener irritation.
Desperate to program your Sky+ PVR, while out and about? Or can’t be bothered to reach for the TV remote control when you’ve got you mobile in your hand?
It looks like using it might be a bit of palaver with the need to SMS quite precise and long winded instructions
JupiterResearch have released research that indicates that 53 percent of Digital Video Recorder (DVR)/PVR users in America have used their DVRs to skip commercials.
Now where we’re united with Jupiter is that people watch more TV when they’ve got a DVR. That is the experience of the vast majority of PVR/DVR users.
French outfit Archos has launched what they claim is the first portable digital TV receiver/ recorder combining portable video recorder (PVR) functionality and two DTT (Digtial Terrestrail Television) tuners.
The built-in DVR records digital TV directly to the hard disk in MPEG2 TS format, and there’s an onboard Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) for scheduled recordings (so long as you can get reception, natch).
An optional 100GB version offers even more storage, which equates to, err, lots more videos, songs and stuff.
We reckon that someone whipping out a large, expensive multimedia device on a London train would soon have no trouble imagining filling in an insurance claim, but with no UK launch announced, perhaps the muggers will have to wait for now.
Nielsen, the top American agency that measures TV viewing audiences, is going to provide ratings that take account of time-shifted viewing through digital recording devices like TiVos even though viewers are able to, and in my experience, generally do, fast-forward through the paid for messages.
The US networks say that time-shifted ratings should be taken into account, and point out that PVR users watch more TV – which we don’t dispute. They watch around 5.7 hours and that’s more than 10% extra when compared with the technologically-disadvantaged standard household. Their logic follows that this extra 10% of viewing, gives them more opportunity to see commercials. With PVR penetration in the USA already around 8% of the TV universe and expected to rise steadily over the coming years, this adds up to a is significant amount for media buyers.
TiVo and Yahoo are linking up to provide a reasonably extensive collaboration.
We understand that both companies see this as a cross-promotion service, so moines haven’t been exchanged. Proof of the promotion for TiVo are see at the bottom of the Yahoo page explaining the service, where non-TiVo owners are given the chance to buy a machine for $49 after rebates.
The programming your Tivo remotely part of the deal mirrors the deal they did with AOL a number of years ago, but as we mentioned, gives Yahoo an output in peoples TV rooms.